THE COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting the staging of festivals and fiestas, and sadly, this gets even more pronounced this January, the “festival month” of Kalibo Ati-Atihan, Iloilo City’s Dinagyang, Cebu’s Sinulog, Quapo’s feast of the Black Nazarene, etc. These celebrations will be very muted this year. Less revelry expected.
Let’s take this as an opportunity to reflect. It is public knowledge that across the length and breadth of the archipelago, countless festivals are marked with colors and glitters, spending sprees and typical wastefulness. But yes, their environmental impacts are hardly ever considered.
Unnoticed by many, our customary feasts and rites, fairs and concerts, parades and pageants, fireworks displays and even our salo-salo can severely spoil the environment, set off pollution and climate change.
From being unmindful of the environmental consequences of our vibrant community celebrations, let us pay serious attention in reducing the fiesta’s health and environmental impacts, and strive to transform our revelries into “zero waste celebrations of life.”
We can make our fiesta a fitting expression of our communion as stewards of Mother Nature by striving to reduce waste to zero or darn near, preventing all forms of pollution, conserving water, electricity and other resources, and saving funds for basic needs and charities.
As the Bishops said in a thought-provoking pastoral letter on ecology many years ago: “This is our home; we must care for it, watch over it, protect it and love it. We must be particularly careful to protect what remains of our forests, rivers, and corals and to heal, wherever we can, the damage which has already been done.
“The relationship which links God, human beings and all the community of the living together is emphasized in the covenant which God made with Noah after the flood. The rainbow which we still see in the sky is a constant reminder of this bond and challenge (Gen 9:19). This covenant recognizes the very close bonds which bind living forms together in what are called ecosystems. The implications of this covenant for us today are clear. As people of the covenant, we are called to protect endangered ecosystems, like our forests, mangroves and coral reefs and to establish just human communities in our land.” (CBCP Pastoral Letter on Ecology, “What is Happening to Our Beautiful Land,” 1988)
