Distorted festival gimmickry

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

The celebration of the feast of the Sto. Niño in Cadiz City last January 25 got unintended publicity in the social media when two people described by the press as members of the LGBT community displayed their private parts in a pole dancing gyration. The two revelers are from Silay City but joined the Cadiz City celebration with a clear intent to display their indecency.

These two did not only insult the purpose of the festival in honor of the Christ Child but dragged along with them other gay persons who live productive, decent, religious and uncompromising lives. These two Silaynons probably thought like their counterparts in western countries that they can publicly display their sexual disorientation and people will laud them for their “courage in the liberation” from social norms.

Well, it was the wrong place to display their disoriented lives and a sense of propriety. The Dinagsa Festival of Cadiz is intended as community celebration to honor their patron – the dancing are mere expressions of communal cheerfulness for the blessings that the people perceived their patron had done for them.

Considering the nature of the festival the visitors should be more circumspect when they attend. The festival is not staged for them to exploit and display their perverse talents.

The same goes for those who carried placards that insulted and disgraced the celebration to the Holy Child. They did not only offend the sensitivities of the Cadiznon but God. The Cadiz government deserves praise for immediately acting and imposing penalties provided by law to deter others who may be thinking of displaying their perversities the next time.

This should be the case in all festivals of this country that has religious content. Allowing the perverts to show their disorientation is to agree to their actions. That would be creating the pool in which they could swim with impunity.

The people in the social media who acted with anger at the disrespect of these two Silaynons deserve praise for their courage to show to the world that they abhor actions of this nature. It is not just a matter of religiosity but of decency.

These two should have gone into a nude colony to display whatever wares they had. Of course, in the nudist colony where everybody is in dishabille, they would not even be noticed.

I wondered, however, why the Cadiz police or organizers did not immediately arrest these two while doing their acts. Did they also enjoy watching and thus encouraging them to do their best performance? Why were the lewd placards not confiscated right there on the streets?

Why did they wait for these displays to be shown to the whole world? Did the Cadiz festival organizer also think them cute until the viewers expressed shocked that this kind of lewdness is happening or being allowed in Cadiz City?

The two LGBT lewd performers paid the P3,000 fine in accordance with the City Ordinance, expressed their contrition and promised not to do this again. Is that promise only for Cadiz or the rest of their lives?

Mayor Salvador Escalante said that the City will revisit the ordinance. That is a big step forward but more than improving the ordinance, the police, the barangay officials and the festival authorities should be well-versed on the provisions of the ordinance so that they can immediately act when displays of this nature occur again.

What happened in Cadiz should be a signal for other towns and cities to consider looking at the people who participate in their festivals especially when the festival has a religious element, like the celebration of the feast of their patron saint.

I recall during the second year of the Bacolod MassKara Festival, some people donned horror or ugly masks. We stopped this because the Bacolod festival was intended for enjoyment and not to terrify people, especially children. The festival did not even have any religious or historical element; it was just intended to make people enjoy.

The rule was simple: use only smiling masks. Thus, even the masks portraying President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Imelda Marcos and other top government officials never came up again. I guess people think there was nothing to smile about with their caricature. Even a radio station’s event giving out prizes for the ugliest face was discontinued.

Let’s not allow our fiestas to be perverted.