Feast Of Our Lady Of Porta Vaga

Aside from the Regada Water Festival, one of the most anticipated celebrations here in Cavite City is the Feast Day of Nuestra Señora De La Soledad De Porta Vaga or Our Lady of Solitude of Porta Vaga. It is a two-weeks celebration starting from the second and third Sundays of November. The Second Sunday or the Primera Fiesta De La Virgen is the grandest of them all. During this day, people tend to celebrate the feast day by cooking wide range of traditional dishes and some sweet delicacies at home. The icon is enshrined at San Roque Church in Cavite City. The devotion to Our Lady of Porta Vaga is one of the famous Marian devotions in the Philippines. They said that the icon was used to bless departing trade galleons plying the route between Cavite and Acapulco, Mexico, earning her the title “Patroness of the Galleons”, while stories of its miraculous powers thus earned it the title, “The Virgin of Thousand Miracles”. During the Fiesta, a concelebrated mass is being held followed by a procession and a fireworks display at night. The newly constructed altars of San Roque Parish church. A Day before the much awaited Fiesta, a series of Caracol are being held all through out the city of Cavite. Caracol or Karakol is a traditional devotional-circumambulatory-dancing procession in honor of the patroness accompanied by a joyful music in the waltz rhythm played by a brass band. In The City of Cavite, the Caracol is both done in the Sea and on Land. The Caracol Del Mar is where the icon is being taken on a boat that will sail towards the bay of Canacao where the apparition took place. The Caracol on land is done in the morning around 8am and in the afternoon around 2pm after a concelebrated mass.Here’s a group of devotees dancing joyfully while carrying the icon on her fully decorated “andas”. The Caracol will pass through certain streets of Cavite City and will pass by two other churches including the Saint Peter Apostle and the San Antonio De Padua Church. Saint Peter in his Andas Carried and danced joyfully by his devotees in front of the Saint Peter Church.
The icon of Our Lady of Porta Vaga is also accompanied by two other Saints including Saint Peter and Saint Anthony respectively. San Antonio De Padua on his fully decorated Andas One of the highlights of Caracol are the street dancers. There’s a street dancing competition here which is also part of the event!. This guy is surely a crowd pleaser.