June affairs

June is in our midst. The public schools have started their classes on the first Monday. And some others will start relatively late, end of July or in August. For the University of the Philippines, it is when the school year is about to end. As others have just started, UP is about to end its school year. Similar to other few colleges and universities, this is mainly part of our bid for internationalization, aligning with the schedule of our neighboring Asian countries, and the world.

In the matter of the heart and relationship, one of the most romantic traditions we have on earth is done in June. June is the most popular month for weddings.  As it derives its name from Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, it was thought that couples who married in June would be blessed with prosperity and happiness. The cold season would bring intimacy to each other as they relish their first few days of their marriage. And so goes the famous biblical passage in marriage from Ephesians 5:22-24 , “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”

For our farmers, it is good for planting as seedlings would grow. The season signals a new life for our flora, and hoping to flourish for life’s sustenance. Minus some occasions of heavy rains and typhoons and floods that can bring havoc to crops and life.

For religious-cultural undertaking, a celebration happening in June is the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, a celebration of San Juan’s patron saint characterized by vigorous and boisterous street dancing with dousing of water and live saints parade. A unique practice on this day is the parade of roasted pork legs dressed up in wigs, sunglasses and bridal veils. This religious festival held every 24 June, not only in Balayan, Batangas to celebrate it local saint, but also throughout the country. On the occasion, swarms of locals get in the streets armed with water guns to watch and spray water or beer on the roasted pigs, which come decorated with the craziest costumes and accessories.

In various locations across Tacloban City in Leyte, on the 29th, Pintados, Spanish for ‘painted’, a word was used by Spanish colonialists to describe an indigenous tribe they found in the province, some of whose members had their bodies covered with tattoos not for decoration, but earned as recognition of demonstrated bravery and high skills in fighting. As a festival, it is a celebration of those native Leyte populations; during the day-long festivities, which are held to honor the revered cult of the Holy Child in the first place, men and women paint their bodies to mimic their ancestors’ tattoos and parade across the city performing traditional music and dances.

Last June 5 we celebrated the World Environment Day, and it is also our country’s Environment Month. More than ever, the call to save our Mother Earth has become increasingly pressing. We cannot anymore wait for the time when our future generation would blame for our apathy and futility.

June is promising us with socio-cultural events, for lovers, students, farmers and the environment. The month may hopefully be fruitful as it ushers in a beginning as well as the continuing enthrallment of life. Its spirit, hopefully, will be spread out throughout the year.