By foot or riding a car, getting to the open field in the South Road Properties for the Nov. 30 National Thanksgiving Mass of St. Pedro Calungsod will take some planning ahead.
The site is almost 2 kilometers from Plaza Independencia and a long walk with no tree shade.
“The weather is either hot or rainy, so have your umbrellas ready,” said Msgr. Marnell Mejia to devotees who plan to join a religious foot procession which starts at 1 p.m.
“Be prepared for a whole day, all-weather activity.”
The Mass itself will start at 5 p.m.
Before the Mass, parishioners from all over Cebu will accompany at least 76 carrozas carrying patron saints of different localities in a foot procession to a soon-to-be completed templete in a vacant lot of the South Road Properties (SRP).
Assembly time is 11 a.m. in three points of Cebu City City: the Cebu Technological University (CTU) gym, the barangay San Roque Gym, and the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño.
The entire SRP will be closed to traffic the night before starting 10 p.m. and open only at 7 a.m. of the event day itself, Friday, Nov. 30.
Color-coded car passes will be given by the Archdiocese and parking set aside for 10,000 vehicles on site.
Free bus rides from designated points are being arranged, but a big number of participants for the Mass are expected to reach the the venue on foot.
No decision has been reached yet on whether vendors will be allowed to sell food and drinks on site or the procession route, so pilgrims and guests should come prepared.
“Although we are trying to put everything in place, we can’t cater to everyone’s needs. They should also be able to help themselves,” said Msgr. Mejia, chairman of the committee on procession in last Thursday’s briefing.
Mejia said everyone should prepare their basic necessities such as food, water, and medicine for the afternoon liturgical celebration for Calungsod, the Visayan teenager whose canonization last Oct. 21 in the Vatican officially recognized the Philippines’ second saint, after San Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila.
Organizers in the Cebu Archdiocese expect the crowd to reach 500,000 to a million for the national thanksgiving celebration.
Not everyone can be seated. Only 10,000 monobloc chairs will be provided, so Mejia urged people to bring their own chairs as well.
PROCESSION
Assembly time for the foot procession is 11 a.m. The activity will start at exactly 1 p.m. At least 45 carozas from the north district will participate, each representing the parish patron saint of their area.
The north district will have three groups. Group 1 will assemble at Osmeña Boulevard, Group 2 at Legaspi St., and Group 3 at V. Gullas St.
From the south district, 62 parishes will participate with 31 of them bringing their carozas.
Their carozas will gather the day before at the Talisay fish port before lining up all in sequence all the way to Laray Junction. “Parishioners may decorate their carozas on the evening of the 29th , or the morning before the procession,” said Msgr. Ruben Labajo, chairman for the south district procession.
Carozas will come as far as Bantayan Island in the north and Ginatilan town in the southwest, said Msgr. Mejia.
Carpenters and electricians will be fielded along the procession route, ready to act in case a caroza, usually decked in flowers and lights, breaks down.
Upon arrival at the templete, the carozas will be lined at the sides, to symbolize the “communion of saints”, a basic Catholic tenet that all Christians, living and dead, assist each other in time of need.
“Atong gipakita nga atong katagilungsod apil na nila,” said Mejia.
TOILETS AND FOOD STALLS
For those coming the south, portable toilets will be built near the Talisay City Fish Port along with food stalls. However, pilgrims from the north will have to ask permission to use restrooms in downtown business establishments and buy their necessities there as well.
It’s not yet been decided whether ambulant vendors can sell along the procession route so participants are advised to buy their necessities like food and drinks beforehand, said Joy Tumulak of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management.