Vigan Tres De Mayo: A Religious Festival

What we consider our community feast day is held on the 3rd of May. While every barangay or village within the poblacion of Vigan celebratesTres De Mayo, it seems tohave more meaning in Pagbantayan or Pagburnayan because the center of the celebration is the Capilla ni Apo Lakayor the Vigan Municipal Cemetery Chapel that is in the peripheral.

The capilla is one of the most beautiful features of hispanic Vigan. It looks like the mission churches of Mexico and Southern California but with a dome. It stands dramatically located at the southern end of the main street where it meets the main road to the western and eastern barangays of Vigan.

It houses a black Nazarene which according to legends, was salvaged from a sunken Spanish galleon west of Vigan. It is said that when the crucified black Christ was being carried to the Metropolitan Cathedral, it suddenly became so heavy and unmovable so the people thought that Apo Lakay wanted to stay where the chapel now stands. It has been the blessed object of veneration for devotees especially during Lent and Tres de Mayo. Catholics from all over the country come to pray & kiss the wooden hands of Apo Lakay.

Tres de Mayo is also the day when the saintly Queen Helena, finding the Holy Cross with son, Constantine is dramatized in the chapel?s courtyard. According to the religious, the significance of this event is the resurgence of Catholicism in Europe with the powerful monarchies as patrons and protectors of the Church.

It is during fiesta that our cultures are presented in varied forms such as arts, games, Santa Helena-Prince Constantine pageant, candle light procession, and the night long Zarzuela or Komedya. Some organizations also hold fund raising Beauty Contests and community dances.