This week many members of the christian community celebrates an event that shares a common thread woven into the fabric of numerous cultures and traditions around the world. This is the week of Carnaval, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and most especially the start of the christian celebration of the Lent!
Each culture celebrates the lenten season in their own very unique ways. "Ash Wednesday" comes after "Fat Tuesday (last day of eating fatty foods before the fasting for Lent)" and marks the start of the lenten season. In Brazil, Italy and other countries there's "Carnaval (carne = meat and vale = to bid farewell to)" and Mardi Gras (french for Fat Tuesday). In the Philippine's we have Senakulo, Pabasa, Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) and the colorful festival with religious significance - Moriones Festival
Moriones Festival takes place in Marinduque - a the small heart-shaped (a real heart not the valentine's day heart) island which also coincidentally happens to be the center of the Philippines.
The stokedtraveler is poised to take this spiritual retreat for the first time. Just recently he's been asked by his distant cousin to come visit an old ancestral house in the Buenavista. He's heard stories from his mom's past about how they (cousin-mom) used to swim in the sulfuric water that flows in a nearby river, how they used to climb tall coconut trees and tend to the crops and farm Carabaos during the short time she spent there with her older sister. While that was nice, it wasn't really so much of the stokedtraveler's thing.
But because of the rise of Philippine local tourism as well as a recent feature in PBB (pinoy big brother), the stokedtraveler has finally decided to go travel. He's never actually researched about Marinduque until today. Surprisingly, Marinduque has so much to offer his thirst for nature-adventure. He hopes to get atleast a glimpse of Bellarocca or better yet a day tour to see its facilities first hand
For those wishing to spend time to visit Marinduque, you may check out these links:
A full story on the stokedtraveler's Moriones-Marinduque travel will be posted as soon as he concludes his trip after Easter Sunday
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