CITY OF MALOLOS—Carabao miniatures, a representation of the internationally known carabao kneeling festival of Pulilan town, will be among the Bulacan collections in a Filipino mini museum in California.
Bulacan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) officials Corina Tengco-Bautista and Mara Bautista send the animal miniatures as gifts to the House of the Philippines (HOP), one of the 38 museums of International Houses of Nations members in Balboa Park, San Diego California in time for this year’s celebration of the Filipino-American History month.
The celebration was held on Saturday, Oct. 19.
The kneeling carabao is the highlight of the annual Carabao Festival in Pulilan that is part of the rich culture and heritage of Bulacan.
Carabao Festival is celebrated every May 14, the feast day of San Isidro Labarador, the patron sainf of the farmers. Farmers trained their carabaos to kneel in front of the Pulilan parish church as a form of homage and respect to the their masters.
During the festival, up to nearly one thousand carabaos owned by the farmers in Pulilan including from adjacent towns in Bulacan and even from nearby provinces paraded the main street. Some flank the road in bare skin while others are clothed decoratively while pulling a carriage where their master is seated.
The donation of the carabao miniature came two years after Myra Villafana, second vice president of HOP in 2022 sought the help of her former classmate Carmela Reyes-Estrope, correspondent of Philippine Daily Inquirer and owner and editor-in-chief of NEWSCORE to facilitate collection of Philippine history, heritage and cultural matetials for the HOP museum.
Estrope and Villafana are both Escolarians who graduated in Centro Escolar Univeristy (CEU) Malolos in 1990.
Estrope is also the secretary of Kabesera, the cultural and heritage group of Bulakan town. Bulakan is the old kabesera (capital) of the province of Bulacan.
