Vamos
a Belen!
by Vic Ferrer
The Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group
will present Vamos a Belen! on December 28
at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Vamos a Belen! is
a two-hour musical presentation of the various ways
Filipinos celebrate Christmas. The pageantry revolves
around the search for an inn by St. Joseph and an obviously
pregnant Virgin Mary, the birth of Jesus Christ in a
stable, the visit of the shepherds, and the arrival
of the Three Kings.
Since 1997, Vamos a Belen!
has been a part of CCP’s Christmas celebration.
No actors and actresses are involved, not even amateur
ones. It is a drama performed by townspeople. The participants
are preteens or young swains and girls in full bloom.
Or they could be old men and women.
For material Ramon Obusan, founder
of the dance group that bears his name, draws from more
than 30 years of research. Originally focused on the
documentation of ethnic dances and music, he has turned
his attention to the way simple folks act out the greatest
drama of them all: the birth of the God-child.
The Pastores
In many places the reenactment of
the first Christmas, which invariably involves dancing
and singing, is called pastores or shepherds. It goes
by different names in some parts of the country: panunuluyan
in Tagalog, panarit or posada in Waray,
kagharong in Bicol, and daigon in
Bisaya.
|
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ON BALANCE
Breaking
shells
JAPAN BEAT
Between
the Devil and the deep blue sea
The
Ten Commandments and the Law |
| |
In
the eye of the storm
An Interview
with OWWA Welfare Officer Josephine Sanchez-Tobia
by Butch N. Talorete
 Josephine
Sanchez-Tobia, or Jojo, as she is fondly called, is
not new to the rumble tumble of the stormy Philippine
overseas labor market. Having been assigned in Singapore
at the height of the Flor Contemplacion ruckus that
brought down then Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto
Romulo, Welfare Officer Tobia knows what it is like
to be in the eye of the storm. After all, she was the
distressed maid’s counselor in death row.
Probably no other welfare officer
in the 80 Philippine embassies worldwide has had her
baptism of fire and experience. Filipinos in Japan are
surely lucky to have her on their side.
Read
more |
