Poring over past issues of Biniray Souvenir Programs, I reread Abner
Faminiano's 1998 essay, "The Biniray Spirit." with gusto.
At last, in my view an Asi writer has blossomed to write profoundly
on the cultural underpinnings of the biray or baroto
to a community engrained in the tribal virtues of sanrokan
(sharing) panayap, pasug-ot (communal fish net hunt/weaving)
and pangupong (thanksgiving).
Abner wrote on to infer perhaps correctly, "the high dependence
on boats of the early Bantoanons might have been the reason that prompted
the Spanish missionaries to make use of the biray and baroto
to win them to Christ and to Catholicism. Hence the development of
the fluvial parade to honor San Nicolas de Tolentino ."
But why a fluvial parade that goes into the open sea and back a number
of times to port? Is it symbolism or a parable of a culture steeped
in the uncertain follies of folklore?
Perhaps we might be able to find some answers when Magellan landed
in Cebu on April 7, 1521. Artillery fire from Magellan's ships easily
swayed King Humabon and his queen to be baptized. The latter was shown
"an image of our Lady, a very beautiful wooden image of the child
Jesus and a cross." But the queen was selective contrary to the
expectations of the Spaniards for her to accept the three religious
objects. She chose the wooden image of the Child.
Forty-four years later, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi landed in Cebu and
the native warriors under Tupas (son of Humabon) fled into the hills
realizing that they had no match to the superior arms of the invaders.
The natives burned their houses and among the few left, the Spanish
soldiers discovered many images of the Holy Child "none of which
was holding a cross or a globe."
Several versions of the discovery of the Cebu icon have been written.
Legazpi related an incident that "one of his soldiers entered
a well built house of an Indian and found an image of the child Jesus...kept
in a cradle and was gilded...the little cross and globe were lacking..this
image was well-kept in that house, and many flowers were found before
it, no one knows for what object or purpose..."
Legazpi's pilot contradicts his boss claiming that the image was found
in a not so well kept house and that the tip of its nose "was
rubbed off somewhat and the skin was coming off his face." Thirty-eight
years after the event, Fr. Chirino claims that "a Bisacayan (that
is, a native from a Visayan island other than Cebu) ...found in a
basket....a carved image of the Holy Child Jesus...The religious at
once took possession of the image...."
Regardless of these versions, the St. Niño of Cebu gained a
devoted following that even Fr. Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga
hinted a pre-Spanish devotion of the Holy Child: "the Indians,
it appeared, had been in possession of this image from time immemorial;
and they were accustomed when they wanted rain to make a solemn feast
and public supplication to it, and carrying it to the seaside they
immersed it in the water until it rained; honors or stripes followed
the concession or refusal of what they had petitioned for, and it
was believed among them that this Santo Niño was the cause
of the disgrace of Magellan.."
There. Where does the biniray come in?
Nick Joaquin makes his case that folklore becomes a parable: "
The story goes that when the seat of government was, in the days of
Legazpi, moved to Manila, which thus became the capital city, the
authorities decreed that the Santo Niño must likewise go north.
So, the image was crated and shipped to Manila but the crate arrived
empty. The Santo Niño was still in Cebu, back in its old shrine.
It was re-crated, and the crate placed in another box, to make pilferage
harder, but the boxes again arrived empty in Manila. The shrine in
Cebu remained occupied. The image was crated a third time, and the
crate placed not in one but in two boxes - but in vain. The shippers
ended up with a series of Chinese boxes, one inside the other, the
seventh and innermost one containing the elusive image. In this contraption
it finally reached Manila - but it wouldn't stay there. It kept on
disappearing from the Augustinian church in the city and reappearing
in its old shrine in Cebu!"
Nick Joaquin goes a step further from Zuñiga's account noting
that after Magellan, "folklore had already formed around the
image as a powerful rain god." The cult of devotion of the Holy
Child as a pagan god spread throughout the Visayas. Romblon town's
carnival parade duplicating Aklan's ati-atihan in honor of El Señor
Sto. Niño takes on a legend by itself.
NVM Gonzalez wrote: "For reasons quite unclear, there was this
magnificent icon of the Holy Infant Jesus on board a galleon bound
for Spain that ran into foul weather, this being the habagat
season in the Visayas. ....There was a break in the weather after
some three days or so - the story goes -and the galleon prepared to
resume her voyage only to return just as soon as she had lost that
cover afforded by the surrounding islands. Six times she braved the
elements; and after yet another try, the southwesterly monsoon being
probably on the wane, it was decided that El Señor be taken
to the local mission church.. It was already quite a ghost of a ship
that had slid back to the quay; nearly all her sails in tatters; her
rudder had split, her foremasts splintered........it was the amihan
season and, over all, better weather for leaving Philippine waters.
But El Señor could not be moved from its temporary altar. Was
this not a sign that El Señor meant to stay? It was a question
which one novena after another event eventually resolved; early in
January to this day, Romblon celebrates that voyage to Spain that
Si (typo for señora?) Habagat thwarted - in a pageant known
as biniray."
And now comes a story from Banton island home of the biray
or baroto and a pagan god named Amang. The legend has
a familiar ring. It seemed that the friars in the mission church of
what is now Banton town decided to move an icon to Maiinit, a potential
rival to "pueblohood." Depending on who we hear, it is believed
that seven times a ship/biray/baroto attempted to move the icon to
Mainit -each time it was thwarted by bad weather; at a time when the
move was successful seven sightings of the icon were found in its
original shrine in Banton pueblo!
Early in September, the Bantoanons celebrate a fluvial pageant known
as the biniray. It is in honor of St. Nicholas de Tolentino!
