At first, I wasn't that excited on the fact that Eury was invited to join the Santacruzan. I was thinking that she was too young and so I was not really preparing. When I talked this over to my officemates (5 days before the event), they were more enthusiastic about it than me. Hehehe. And so I was encourage to really prepare for it.Thank God I realized this a few days before the event. I saw that my daughter was really into it and really was excited.
The Santacruzan (the walking itself) started at around 6:30 PM and ended at nearly 8:00 PM. Eury walked for about one and a half hour with a gown longer than her in a not so smooth road with hot lights and humid weather and she didn't complain. When we asked her if she's tired already she always say NO with conviction. A lot of the other young girls asked to be cuddled already but she walked until the end. Even us adults were nearly if not yet tired from walking. I guess she really wanted this....
Flores, from Spanish flores or "flowers," also known as Flores de Mayo (flowers of May), Flores de Maria (flowers of Mary) or alay (offering), may refer to the whole Flower Festival celebrated in the month of May in tribute to the Virgin Mary . The Santacruzan was a novena procession remembering St. Helena's mythical finding of the cross. St. Helena was the mother of Constantine the Great. According to legends, 300 years after the death of Christ, at the age of 75, she went to Calvary to conduct a search for the Cross. After some archeological diggings at the site of the Crucifixion, she unearthed three crosses. She tested each one by making a sick servant lie on all three. The cross where the servant recovered was identified as Christ's. St. Helena's feast day falls on August 8 but the anniversary of the finding of the Cross is on May 3rd, in the Philippines, this celebration took the form of the Mexican Santa Cruz de Mayo.
