Celebrate in Thanksgiving

Cagayan de Oro is a city that’s blessed with a beautiful people thus gaining the City of Golden Friendship as its nickname. It’s endowed with a river now known as a favorite site for white water rafting and is also teeming with other popular tourist destinations. With all these attached to its name, just try to imagine how it gears up for the city fiesta in honor of its patron Saint Augustine.

Various activities have already begun and more will happen this month as fiesta organizers expect thousands of local and foreign visitors to come and be part of the festivities that will culminate on the feast day August 28.

Fiesta means a celebration, a recognition of the graces and bounty that God has given to us. It is our way of asking the city’s patron saint for prayers, intercessions and more blessings. It is one of the times of the year that both believers and non-believers cherish.

Mayor Constantino Jaraula reminded residents to focus more on thanksgiving both for the rich and the poor especially now that there are more opportunities for every Cagayanon, “and we should be grateful to our patron Saint Augustine for all the gifts.”

Jaraula said that although in the olden days fiestas were celebrated in thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest, fiestas in a metropolis like Cagayan de Oro should be celebrated for God’s graces, blessings that allow us to lead relatively comfortable lives.

Promote CDO Foundation, a private entity composed  of well-meaning entrepreneurs working for the development of the city and this year’s fiesta organizers, promises a series of much improved activities to showcase the city and elevate it to an annual must-go-to destination every August.

Ruben Vegafria, chair of the Kagay-an Festival 2007, said that the Cagayan de Oro River is host to the white water rafting competition, fluvial parade, long boat race and jet-ski exhibition. The river, with its environmental significance, will continue to remind Cagayanons that it is one natural resource that the city is proud of, thus, a clean and green competition is being held among the riverside barangays.

Other activities scheduled within the city proper are the street dancing, beauty pageant, various concerts, sports competitions, fashion shows, product exhibits, street parties, agro-industrial trade fair, the culinary arts and other food-related festivals.

The street dancing will have a new twist: the beat-one step of the Higaonon Tribe will reverberate, with the rhythm of their hushed steps on the pavement expected to awe spectators. The first Cagayan de Oro Golden Float competition will also be more spectacular this year.

Vegafria said that the this year’s city fiesta celebration has even become bigger with the cooperation and participation of the Misamis Oriental government, with all the towns showcasing in their respective booths around the capitol the government’s one-town-one-product scheme.

“We are gearing towards making our city the tourist destination not only in August but the whole year round considering that we are a typhoon-free city and our tourism potentials are different from what’s usual in other places,” Vegafria said.

Although it is expected that the festivities in the homes of Cagayanons will be more pronounced with banquets, the city government and the fiesta organizers have reminded residents to be prudent with their expenses so as not to go into financial trouble after the fiesta celebration.