Our Lady of Joy Learning Center had such a beautiful way of celebrating Mothers’ Day. As Mary Rose Villacastin-Maghuyop and Bobby Bargamento were winding the Theatre Summer Workshop, they chose to have Mothers’ Day celebration as the culminating activity. The students prepared various dance interpretations of mother-related music.
Mary’s Faith was the music for the opening number.
That was, of course, most fitting because all appreciation for mothers rightfully begins with our Mother Mary.
Her faith started it all.
It reminded me of her mother moments: her serene contemplation of the infant Jesus; her search for Him and finding Him, his reminder on His Father’s business.
She refused to be discouraged when He said it was not yet the Time in Cana; instead she asked the servers to follow His instructions.
I also recalled how my memory of the film “The Passion of the Christ” is the the question I kept asking: who is more pained — the person actually suffering or those who love him and accompany him in this pain?
A main part of the presentation were the dances to the tune of lullabies.
They made it a point that the various regions of the country were represented in the lullabies played.
Luzon was represented with “Sa Ugoy ng Duyan.”
The warmth and soothing quality of mother’s love was directly felt with this music and the dancing.
Because of the experience, I soaked myself in the singing of Lea Salonga and Aiza Seguerra to catch some comfort and security.
“Ili-ili Tulog Anay” represented the Visayas.
It represents another image of the mother. In the song the child is asked “to sleep for a while” because the mother is out to work.
Then the succeeding stanza tells the child to sleep for a while for when he wakes up, he will be with the mother to help her.
Perhaps one might find most moving the song from Mindanao, “Meme na Mindanao.” A mother sings about hoping for peace, dreaming of time when her child can grow in peace.