Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan
Filipinos like festivals. They are celebrated all year round. May is the merriest and the most beautiful month of the year. When the rains begin to fall after a long dry spell, flowers magically bloom overnight. And being predominantly Catholic, the Filipinos celebrate the beneficial rains by giving praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary. May is also the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ. Every day in May, children with cut flowers and basket of petals in hand march down the church center aisle. As the children march down the aisle, they sprinkle the fragrant petals to Mother Mary. This custom is called offering to the Virgin. The children sing hymns to Lady Immaculate and leave their bouquet of flowers loose and dethroned. Flores, from Spanish flores or “flowers” is also known as Flores de Mayo or flowers of May. Flores de Maria (flowers of Mary), may refer to the whole flower festival celebrated in the month of May in tribute to the Virgin Mary.
The Santacruzan is a novena procession remembering St. Helena’s mythical finding of the Cross. St. Helena was the mother of Constantine the Great. According to legends, 300 years after the death of Christ, at the age of 75, she went to Calvary to conduct a search for the Cross. After some archaeological diggings at the site of crucifixion, she unearthed three crosses. She tested each one by making a sick servant lie on all three. The cross where the servant recovered was identified as Christ’s. St. Helena’s feast day falls on August 8 but the anniversary of the finding of the cross is May 3rd in the Philippines. This celebration took the form of the Mexican Santa Cruz de Mayo.
As another legend puts it, Constantine the Great, facing a battle against the Mighty Roman Emperor, Maxentius in the year 312 A.D. turned hopeless to the new Christian God for help. Constantine cast his eyes heavenwards and saw in the night sky a glowing sign of the cross with the words, “In hoc signia vincit”, meaning, “By this sign Thou shalt conquer” . He adopted the cross as his battle insignia with the words and forthwith went to defeat the Roman Army and entered Rome a victory, pledging his faith in Christianity.
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