I remember enjoying the sight of beautiful ladies and lads parading during Santacruzan in the month of May when I was still a kid. But for more than a decade now, I didn’t get a chance to witness such event again. It’s a shame maybe but I must admit that I never understood its significance as I observed rather that people are more busy dressing up and taking pride as it seemed to be a beauty pageant. It was only a few months ago that a good friend told me that it is something Marian and a religious practice? Will somebody enlighten me please?

Filipinos indeed are fiesta fanatics. Every province has its own kinds of festivities. But there is one festival that is celebrated all over the country. Being predominantly Catholic and with fervent Marian devotees, the Filipinos dedicate the month of May to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ. All throughout the warm month of May, the Flores de Mayo festival has been observed annually. Flores de Mayo is a Spanish phrase that literally means Flowers of May, which refers to the offering of numerous flowers to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the altar in the church. In many parishes this has become primarily a catechetical activity for children and teens. The culmination of the Flores de Mayo festival is the Santacruzan procession.

Catechumens as angels at the culmination of Flores de Mayo [School of Saint John Bosco]

Santacruzan is a coined word from Santa Cruz which means Holy Cross. It is a religio-historical pageant held in many cities and even in small villages in the Philippines that highlights the festival. This religious procession is a re-enactment of the finding of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by Queen Helena, the mother of the very powerful Emperor, Constantine the Great, who ended the persecution of Christians.

According to accounts, some 300 years after Christ’s death, St. Helena aged 75, set out for Calvary to find the True Cross of Jesus. There she found three crosses. St. Helena then asked sick servants to touch or lie down on each cross, and the one that healed them was deemed as the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified and died.

Santacruzan [Zamboanga City]

In the procession, Queen Helena is joined by the sagalas, a Tagalog word which means maidens in costume. These maidens portray various biblical and historical characters. Some of them represent the history of our Christian faith and others, a variety of Marian titles. In this modern era, where Santacruzan has slowly turned into a sort of beauty pageant, we need to remind ourselves that this is a significant Christian tradition.

Santacruzan is a symbol of the strong Catholic faith of the Filipino people. According to Cardinal Tagle,“Santacruzan invites us to reflect on the Cross, and how, through it, Jesus Christ made our salvation possible.”