In Nueva Ecija, when I was just a small child, we used to celebrate the Feast of San Buenaventura every July 15. As early as 8 years old, I remember my mother cooking biko (sweet rice cake made of sticky rice, brown sugar, and coconut milk) because apparently, the feast of San Buenaventura is also commemorated by some families as “Pista Ng Mga Bata” in my hometown of San Antonio in Nueva Ecija. It’s a thanksgiving celebration in honor of San Buenaventura for keeping children safe and healthy. I think we observed this tradition in our house until my first year in high school. After that, since I was a teenager already, we stopped cooking biko at home, but we would receive rice cakes and other sweets from my titas, who had small children.
I completely forgot about it over the years until I had kids of my own. Our yaya, who was also from my hometown, insisted that we cook ginataang bilo-bilo at home about five years ago to celebrate the feast of “Apung Tura” and as a thanksgiving for our kids’ health.
Of course, I liked the idea and was happy because I was reliving a childhood memory once again. I would always request our yaya to cook my favorite native sweets from our province – ginataang bilo-bilo and inangit, biko, suman, and so on. There was one year, though that we were not able to cook anything, so we just ordered from GrabFood.
There’s not much literature or information about Pista Ng Mga Bata on the internet. I know that it was mainly a Kapampangan tradition, which we have adopted. For Kapampangans, in the town of Cabiao, San Buenaventura is known as Apung Tura. They also celebrate the feast of San Buenaventura in a similar fashion – by cooking kakanin.
For some households, they would hang rag dolls made of spare fabrics and then throw these away the next day with a prayer for Apung Tura to keep their children safe and carry with them any disease that may afflict their little ones (Sta. Juana, Esposa de Cusa FB Page, 2020). San Buenaventura was an Italian who was from the Franciscan Order.
Are you familiar with the Feast of Apung Tura or Pista Ng Mga Bata? Share your stories in the comment section below.
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