On St. Anthony's Feast Day.

Yesterday,Thursday,June 13 was the feast day of St.Anthony of Padua,the patron Saint of Sibulan,Negros Oriental Philippines.

They really take their festivals seriously here in Sibulan.

To start off our day, we were to attend a 5:00 AM thanksgiving mass at St.Anthony's Catholic church but a heavy rainstorm cancelled that - for us,at least. I'm not certain if we were getting the tail end of a typhoon,but it wouldn't surprise me.

Earlier, in preparation for the festival, on Wednesday, I accompanied Cathy's papa and two younger brothers to the old house in Tubtuban where Papa keeps his pigs. In a repeat of my visit six years ago, I helped, in a minor way,slaughter one of the two pigs that would be served up Thursday. thankfully, Cathy's cousin Rolly arrived to take over.

Thursday's star of the day was the lechon baboy - a whole pig,roasted outside on a bamboo spit. There are photos, taken with my 20th century SLR. It will be a few days before any of those photos will get posted online.

The highlight of Thursday,for me, at least, was my finally meeting face to face with Dom Cimafranca and his charming wife, Emily. I've been of fan of Dom's blog, Village Idiot Savant, for a number of years. Cathy, J.P. and I spent a few hours with the Cimafranca's in Dumaguete. I'll have more on that in a later post.

Later, Cathy, J.P. and I topped off the evening by walking to the church with Cathy's sisters and their children. There, we lit candles and prayed.

We returned home to house filled with visitors. As I said, they really take their festivals seriously here in Sibulan