In a farming village in Santa Cruz town, residents celebrate Epiphany or the Feast of the Three Kings not just with three kings but with four.
Unlike in other Catholic parishes that observe the occasion with three local men dressed in a king’s garb going around the community riding in horses, residents of Barangay Hupi celebrate a fourth king who rides a carabao (water buffalo).
The unique tradition is known in the province as the Haring Karabaw festival.
Village chair Apolonio Regalia, 46, said fundadores (founders) Ireneo de Luna and his peers started the festival in 1941, when De Luna was the village head.
Aside from uniting the villagers, the festival aimed to serve as a respite for the farmers, who were perennially wary and fearful as it was the Second World War and the Philippines was occupied by Japanese forces.
Regalia said the fundadores, who decided to depict and mock King Herod as the Haring Karabaw, held the activity to coincide with the feast of the Epiphany.
3 wise men
Jan. 6, the traditional end of Christmas season in the Catholic church, is also designated as the time when the three wise men visited Jesus who was born on Dec. 25.
The three—Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar—arrived from the east bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for Jesus.
In the course of their journey, the Magis saw a star in the west which announced the Messiah’s birth. As they followed the star they arrived at King Herod’s palace and asked where they could find the newborn king.
Herod has not heard of the new king but fearing the baby might be a threat to his position as king, he instructed the Magis to seek out the location of Jesus and come back to let him know Jesus’ location so he could also bring gifts to him.
The Magis did find Jesus but God directed them in a dream to return home through another route to avoid having to meet Herod again and tell him where to find Jesus.
Not hearing from the three Magis again, Herod proceeded to have his troops slaughter all infants under the age of two so as to remove this possible threat to his throne.
Local myths claim that the troops’ failure to locate the child Jesus led to King Herod’s insanity. Thus, De Luna and his peers made the mad Herod ride a carabao instead of a horse in their fest.
71 years
De Luna and his peers informally organized themselves into the Samahan ng Haring Karabaw that saw through the staging of the festival in Hupi in the past 71 years.
Sergio Tagbago, 81, who was a “king” in 1965, said that those who become kings usually expect blessings from God.
The Haring Karabaw is accompanied by other members of their organization, who are dressed either in ladies’ or rag outfits, with smudges on their faces to depict the mad King Herod.
Catholic priest Bienvenido “Father Bong” Marticio said nothing is written in the bible about a haring karabaw but sees nothing wrong with the festival.
He said it is simply a tradition “customized to the everyday life of the villagers whose primary livelihood is farming with the carabao as their beast of burden.”
He reminded the villagers that they should show their faith only to the one and only true king, Jesus Christ.
Regalia and Tagbago hope that the festival would eventually become a tourism showcase for the province.
Hupi lies adjacent to Santa Cruz town proper. It has a population of around 2,000, most of them farmers, with some into fishing.