Editorial
A festival fatigue in Dagupan City
There are brilliant ideas and there are dumb ideas. And the recent announcement of the executive committee of the Dagupan City Fiesta making the whole month of December the city’s period of observance of its fiesta is certainly one of the dumbest ideas we have heard in years.
We cannot fault this year’s organizers for scraping the bottom for novel ideas in a bid to be different and make their events more memorable perhaps, but they went overboard by changing a tradition held over time by their great forefathers.
For decades, Dagupeños await and have always looked forward to a week-long festive ambiance and celebration after Christmas day, the fiesta period! It’s the time when Dagupeños celebrate the Christmas spirit, partaking of annual family reunions, civic parades, picnics, public dances, selection of city’s muses, etc. all in a week’s period.
The idea to herald the whole month of December as fiesta time not only breaks the time-honored tradition but also imposes unnecessary financial strain on an already cash-strapped city government and a business sector suffering from donor-fatigue. We can’t but perceive this gimmick merely as an alibi for an opportunity to solicit more donations and contributions for more non-essential activities from both the local government and the business sector which they will later refuse to account for.
Sure, the organizers can whip up some pre-fiesta activities but these are absolutely not necessary. Additionally, a month-long celebration will distract and get in the way of normal business routine in the city. Students will predictably have less time in classrooms, while city officials will spend lesser time on their regular work on the pretext that they are involved in preparations and activities for the month-long celebration.
At the rate the Lim Administration is promoting festivals in the city, Dagupan will soon suffer from a festival-fatigue syndrome that nothing else can be considered a special reason for celebration. A three-week pre-fiesta activity will certainly make the fiesta proper anti-climactic, that’s for sure.
There is time for innovative ideas, and there is time for tradition. Let’s keep the December 26-30, a fiesta-cum-Christmas celebration, a truly special celebration reserved only for Dagupan City the way it is, the way it has been – a tradition.
A month-long fiesta? Really dumb and ridiculous.
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