Panagbenga Festival 2018

Panagbenga is Baguio city's flower festival, held every February. The whole month is filled with different events all around the city and ultimately ends with the grand street dancing and floats parades along the main Roads. For many years now, I've heard about the festival, but it's always accompanied with "warning: it'll be very crowded!" so I never thought of taking the 7-hour bus ride up north until this year! I went to the bus terminal late on Thursday night and was only able to catch a bus two hours later (long Baguio queue!). A bus ride from Victory Liner, Pasay to Baguio costs P455. 

Baguio city is up on the hills, so the weather is pleasant all year round; that's why Baguio is also called the Summer Capital of the Philippines because it's always cool. That's the first thing I noticed when I got off the bus - the air I inhaled felt very light and thin. We walked down session road and made a quick stop at the city market so I could meet some Bahá'i friends. I was blown away by the city market - walkway in the middle was wide and very clean... far from the typical noisy, smelly, crowded markets we have around here. Every time I visited Baguio in the past I was with my family and we had our car to drive and visit tourist places (Camp John Hay, Philippine Military Academy, The Mansion, Mines View Park, etc), so this was my first time to be exploring on foot and I was already in love with the city during my first two hours. 

Saturday

After a good night's rest, we headed into town at around 7:30 am. We were told to leave as early as 5 so that we could find a good spot to watch the parade, but... we took our sweet time. We arrived at Burnham park, walked through and ended at the Igorot Garden (beside Veniz Hotel) and boy was crowded! The parade didn't start until almost 9 am. When I heard the marching bands and spectators cheering, I realized I had to move around and find an elevated spot in order to see what's going on so I climed up the foot bridges and walked back and forth for almost an hour. The guards didn't let anyone stand still on the footbridge; there were lots of guards there making sure no one caused traffic up there so my only way was to move back and forth and just click as quickly as possible. 

Pass the pick-up lines

It's that time of the year I get to play my favorite game - pass the parcel! Well, I've only ever played it once in my life, this was with the Sheffield community back in 2013. I loved the game so much so that afterwards, I made sure I created and facilitated this game every. single. Ayyam-i-há!

In case you're not familiar with the game, it's basically a ball with layers and layers of little gifts. Everyone sits in a circle and passes the parcel round while the music is playing. When the music stops, whoever has the ball should unwrap one layer and he/she gets the prize. Then continue with the music, pass the parcel round, stop, open... again and again until you reach the last gift. 

This year I'm spicing it up a little bit... well, more like humour-ing it a little bit. Each gift inside the parcel has a little pick-up line/pun that matches the gift. 

Are you coffee?
Because you woke up my heart that was sleeping

Do you have a license?
Because you're driving me nuts!

#NoFilter Calamba

Calamba has been my family's escape-from-Manila destination for eleven years now. 

Here are some reasons why

taken with my Nikon D5200. 


Here's a video I made at Calamba a few months ago

Chastity: living up to high standards

A few months ago, I asked my friends on Facebook to suggest topics they'd like me to blog about. One friend commented "chastity". Huh?! I brushed it off. A few weeks later, two more friends made the same suggestion. It took me a long time to be comfortable with the topic. First, I realized I hadn't studied enough/ hadn't been in any gathering where this theme was discussed. So, my background knowledge was very limited. Second, who talks about these things anymore? We're all told Hey, no sex before marriage. Hey, no skimpy dresses. Hey, no cursing. Full stop. Lust and sex are pretty much in the same category as depression and suicide -- a taboo. You just don't talk about them. Or perhaps just in my social circles? But when I finally gathered the courage to address one of those forbidden topics - suicide, I became overwhelmed by the private emails/responses I received from readers (thank you to everyone who shared your insights and stories with me) I realized there are so many people out there who really want to talk about these things. We need to break out of our boxes and address these realities. People are ready for a discourse.

So here's to opening doors...

What is chastity?

According to Shoghi Effendi, "Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of modesty, purity, temperance, decency and clean-mindedness, involves no less than the exercise of moderation in all that pertains to dress, language, amusements, and all artistic and literary avocations. It demands daily vigilance in the control of one's carnal desires and corrupt inclinations. It calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures. It requires total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from opium and from similar habit-forming drugs. It condemns the prostitution of art and of literature, the practices of nudism and of companionate marriage, infidelity and marital relationships and all manner of promiscuity, of easy familiarity, and of sexual vices..." (The Advent of Divine Justice, p.30)

That's quite heavy, isn't it? Very high standards too. But if you take your time to read and reflect, chastity, in the Bahá'i Faith is about moderation and vigilance. It does not call for absolute transformation into saints or monks (to live as isolated individuals). The laws aren't rigid, so what is modesty when it comes to dress, language and arts is left to the individual. But there are some laws that are a clear NO. Total abstinence from alcohol, drugs and immorality.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ commanded "Thou shalt not commit adultery", and revealed in 1 Thessalonians (4:3) that we should abstain from sexual fornication, and in 1 Peter 2:11, that we are urged

Ayyam-i-há inspired gift ideas

Very soon, Bahá'is around the world will be celebrating the "days outside of time". The Bahá'i calendar is made up of 19 months and each month has 19 days. Do the maths - that makes 361 days a year. The Gregorian calendar has 365 days, so the four remaining days are called Intercalary days or AYYAM-i-HA!! yeah!! These are the last four days in February (this year it's February 25th - March 1st) just before we start the 19 day fast (March 2 - 20). It's pretty much a festival of joy, happiness, love, charity, 

and everything sharing-is-caring related.

In Bahá'u'lláh's words, 

"...It behoveth the people of Bahá, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred, and beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name..."

Indeed it is a time for giving gifts, and it's important to put thoughts into the kinds of gifts we give away. The quotation above immediately made me think of the arts. There's a lot in the Bahá'i Writings about art - art animates the spirit, art is food for the soul and art can be an expression of worship. With that said, I've always been amazed by the Bahá'i-inspired artists I find on Etsy (an online shop for creative minds!) Some of them have made available their Ayyam-i-há inspired creations, which you can purchase 
by clicking on their names in blue. 

1. Greeting Cards by Elika Mahony 

Each card comes with a gold envelope and is enclosed
in a beautiful gold chiffon gift bag

2. Fridge magnets by Charity Hofert

I've featured Charity Hofert in a previous blog before. She's an amazing artist who focuses on ceramics. She has two pages: A Tiny Seed and chARiTyelise. 

Apart from fridge magnets, she also make ceramic jewellery
and little home decors

3. Children's Coloring Book 

"Celebrating Ayyam-i-ha, Observing the Fast and Celebrating Nawruz around the world" by Delighted Hearts

This book includes 84 coloring pages!
There is another version "Celebrating Ayyam-i-ha around the world"
but it is not a coloring book. It has 28 pages that illustrate to children the
meaning and purpose of the days of Ayyam-i-há
Available here

4. Happy Ayyam-i-ha banners by A Gladsome Heart

This would be a great gift idea to give to families who plan to host an Ayyam-i-há celebration, so they won't need to worry too much about decorating. This simple, elegant banner is just perfect!

Banners available in Gold or Silver. Length: 6.5 - 7 feet.

5. Fabric gift bags by LuckyBugPaperCo

Some ideas of what you can put in the bag when you give them away:

chocolates/sweets; a 175 Bahá'i Era journal/diary (if you community already has one) 

because the New Year is coming up soon; a prayer book...

A set of 5 bags (each bag is 5 x 6 inches) with colorful star shapes

6. Music by Corinne Padilla Mc Loughlin 

This is on 9starmedia - where you can find music by Bahá'i-inspired musicians from around the world. Corinne McLoughlin is a Filipino artist, who released this album last year during the Bicentenary Birth Anniversary of Bahá'u'lláh. It would be a lovely idea to play her CD in the background of your Ayyam-i-há celebrations!

In the video below, the sings Suppliant Bahji

✭✭✭

Link to my Ayyam-i-há blog post from last year

Throwback: North Naija road trip

 Some of my favorite photos that I took during our family road trip back 

in December 2008 from Abuja to Bauchi to Katsina to Sokoto, 

back down to Kano and Kaduna.

colors 

smiles of Nassarawa