Delegates get a taste of ‘barrio fiesta’

Australian pilgrims join the Sandiego Dance Company for the finale of the “parish encounter” of IEC delegates at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral led by Msgr. Ruben Labajo and Bishop Michael Kennedy. (CDN PHOTO/EILEEN G. MANGUBAT)

Delegates to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) experienced a “barrio fiesta” hosted by local parishioners in 15 selected churches across Cebu City last night.

At the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, delegates were welcomed by a Sinulog dance performed by students from Cebu Technological University (CTU).

Filipiniana-clad matrons gave each guest a shell necklace as they entered the cathedral for the Mass.  Friendship bands and rosaries were also distributed as tokens later.

The “barrio fiesta” dinner was held in the convent grounds, where the St. Cecilia choir and rondalla played English and Cebuano songs.

Some Australian seniors and Bishop Michael Kennedy of the Archdiocese of Armidale in Australia, who celebrated the Mass, later accepted the challenge of doing the Tinikling folk dance which requires dancers to step over and in between bamboo poles.

The delegates had a taste of lechon (roasted pork), roast beef, beef caldereta (stewed beef with tomato sauce, potatoes and carrots), fried chicken wrapped in pandan leaves, squid adobo in oyster sauce, shrimp halabos (stewed shrimp with coconut milk and butter), and mixed vegetables (broccoli, chinese cabbage, and bean sprouts with crab meat) and bam-i, a noodle dish.

For dessert, the guests had a fill of native delicacies such as masareal, tagaktak, peanut brittle and pinasugbo.

“The food is great. I try something new everyday,” said Jennifer Harman, executive director of a diocese in New South Wales, Australia.

The “fiesta” was followed by a concert and cultural show that featured the Sandiego dance company performing before the cathedral’s altar.

At the Sacred Heart Center, Taiwanese and Chinese delegates were greeted by the Pardo Elementary School Rondalla as they entered the convention hall.

At the door, usherettes in red Filipiniana costumes and ushers in Barong Tagalog welcomed the guests.

Inside the hall, blue, yellow, pink, green, and red flaglets hung across the ceiling. Two banana plants stood on both sides of the stage. Instrumental Filipino music filled the room.

Where decorative centerpieces should have been, a plate of bananas, unripe mangoes, oranges, and peanuts were placed on the tables.

Rey Pagulong, banquet supervisor, said they wanted to make the delegates feel like they were taking part in a Filipino fiesta.

The guests were served “ubod” salad, Filipino fresh lumpia, chicken arroz caldo, chicken pork adobo, bam-i, fried boneless bangus, and lechon.

For dessert, the delegates had langka-filled turon and crema of mangga.

The Sacred Heart Parish is a Jesuit-administered Roman Catholic Personal Parish for the Chinese-Filipino community in Cebu.