How to determine the date of the Traslacion and the Peñafrancia Fiesta - A Special Report

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The Procession of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia de Naga

Written by Bishop Rex Andrew Alarcon

Editor's note: When I first saw this particular article on Facebook, there was this issue on how the iconic fiesta of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia of Naga, Camarines Sur is set due to erroneous dating of the fiesta in the Ordo of Masses released by the CBCP's Commission on Liturgy which caused a flurry from devotees of Ina. When I read this piece on Facebook, this helped me clear some misconceptions on pointing when will the fiesta of Ina will take place on the month of September. The following is an article from the Facebook page of the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres.

It is not very easy to determine of the Fiesta of Our Lady of Peñafrancia in Bicol, and hence the Traslacion.  The date of the feast is not fixed. There is a formula followed to determine the date.

The Ordo 2019 for the Philippines has mistakenly placed the Peñafrancia Fiesta on: September 15, 2019.

We find it very important and crucial to correct the information, as there are communities and parishes abroad who schedule their week-long celebrations, there are devotees and pilgrims who peg their leave from work or vacation and reserve the dates for travel to the Philippines and Naga based on the dates given.

The correct date for the Solemn Feast of Our Lady of Penafrancia for the year 2019 is September 22, 2019.  Therefore, the Traslacion will be on September 13, 2019.

For easy reference, below is a table of the feastdays in the coming years:

Table 1
Note that the  The Traslacion - the procession that brings the images of the Divino Rostro and Ina to the Cathedral,  is held always on the Fridays, 9 days before the Solemn Feast.  The Fluvial procession -the procession by the river that brings the images back to the Basilica is held on the Saturday immediately preceding the Feast.

Determining the Feast Day of Our Lady of Peñafrancia

Like many others, I also used to say that the Fiesta of Our Lady of Peñafrancia occurs every 3rd Sunday of September.  This is true most of the time, but not all the time. 

The feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is not fixed on a particular date, but is fixed on the Sunday after the octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This celebration which was previously assigned to the first Sunday of July was moved to the month of September when then Apostolic Administrator Jorge Barlin’s petition was granted by Rome through the issuance of a rescript in 1905.  Said rescript  indicated the feast day, i.e., “Dominicae post Octavam Nativitatis ejusdem Deiparae Virginis.”   This is translated in English as:  ‘the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity of the same Virgin Mother of God.’

Many are not aware of this formula.  Besides, the instruction may not be easily understandable – somewhat complicated since it needs the determination of three things: (1) the Nativity of the Virgin Mary; (2) the Octave of the Nativity; and (3) the Sunday after the octave.

Thus, to determine the feast day, the following procedure may be followed:
  • First, look for the date of the Nativity of the BVM, that is, September 8.  
  • Second, determine the Octave of the Nativity by counting 8 days beginning with the day of the Nativity itself, September 8.  In doing so, one ends with September 15.  Thus, the octave of September 8 is always September 15.,
  • Finally look for the Sunday that immediately follows September 15. This Sunday is the Solemn Feast of the Virgin of Peñafrancia.
Keeping in mind the instruction of the rescript, it may be said that the fiesta of the Virgin of Peñafrancia falls on the Sunday that immediately follows the 15th of September.   This one would be a simpler formula.

On the Matter of the Octave

There could be a miscalculation of the fiesta.  A misinterpretation of the word ‘Octave’ may result to this. Octava in Latin means eight (8).  The Webster dictionary defines octave as:  (1) An 8-day period of observances beginning with a festival day.  (2) A musical interval embracing eight diatonic degrees.

Liturgically, an octave is “a liturgical practice of commemorating a Church feast over a period of eight days, beginning with the feast day itself.  The eight and final day is known as the octave day.” Thus we have the term ‘octava’.  We call a nine-day celebration ‘novenario’.

The Traslacion is done two Fridays before the feast day itself so that a novenario may be completed, beginning from the day of the Traslacion itself until the Saturday of the Fluvial procession.

There are currently two octave celebrations in the whole Catholic Church, namely:  Christmas and Easter.  The octave of Christmas, December 25, is January 1.   The octave of Easter Sunday is the Sunday that immediately follows it.  In both cases octave means 8 days and/or the 8th day.

In the past, there were other octave celebrations for the universal church.  They had been abolished and only these two were retained.  However, the particular rescript issued to Nueva Caceres regarding the feast day of Ina was not abolished.  And even if it were abolished, for the sake of argument, such abrogation does not change the meaning of the octave.  Octave retains its meaning of eight.

With this manner of reckoning, it is not surprising that the date of the fiesta of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is movable.  However, the manner of reckoning itself is neither haphazard nor arbitrary.

Procession of El Divino Rostro
Previous Fiesta Celebrations

To see more concretely the phenomenon of the movable dates of the fiesta, below is a table of the fiesta celebrations since 1974.  In the rows below, the first date refers to the day of the Traslacion and the second date refers to the Solemn Feast day of Ina.

For example, in 1974, the Traslacion was on September 13 and the feast day was on September 22.

Table 2

From the data above, the following conclusions can be derived.
  1. Most the time the fiesta occurred on the 3rd Sunday of September.  But it had not always been so.  There were years when the fiesta fell on the 4th Sunday of September.  See for example the years 1974, 1985, 1991, 1996, 2002.  In those years, the 1st day of September fell on a Sunday. Therefore in this mode of reckoning, whenever September 1 falls on a Sunday, the fiesta will necessarily fall on the 4th Sunday of September.   This seldom happens, however.  In the next six years the fiesta will be on the 3rd Sunday of September.  But in 2013 and 2019, the feast will be on the 4th Sunday of September. 
  2. (The) year, 2007, although the feast occurred on the third Sunday of September and the Traslacion, a day before the Nativity of Mary (September 7).  The same thing happened in the years 1979, 1984, 1990 and 2001.  T
  3. There were likewise occasions when the Traslacion was done on the day of the Nativity of Our Lady itself.  See for example the years:  1978, 1989, 1995, 2000, and 2006.T
  4. The dates of the Traslacion and the Feast day of INA for the year 2007, are the same as those of the years 1979, 1984, 1990 and 2001.

Conclusion

​In a span of at least 34 years, as the table above proves, the dates, on which the feast day of Ina was celebrated, consistently corresponded to the instructions of the rescript. 
​
​Using the same manner indicated in the rescript, the date of the Traslacion and Solemn Feast day of our Lady of Peñafrancia during these years of the Tercentenary celebrations will be  as follows:

Year 2008​–  Traslacion: Sept. 12 Feastday: Sept. 21
Year 2009​–  Traslacion: Sept. 11​​ Feastday: Sept. 20
Year 2010​-   Traslacion: Sept. 10 Feastday: Sept. 19

It can be added, in closing,  that the Feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, accorded with the rank of  a solemnity,  took precedence over the feast of the ‘The Seven Sorrows of Mary’, which used to be celebrated on the Sunday after the octave of the birth of our Lady.  This was consequently moved.  The 1905 rescript of  Pope Pius X made provision of the transferring of the feast of the Seven Sorrows to the “nearest first of the following Sundays that is free according to the Rubrics.”

​I hope this endeavor of explaining the dates of the Fiesta would afford us an opportunity to take a glimpse of the past and help clarify some doubts, as we Remember the Gift of Devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia.

Reference:

 Alarcon, Rex Andrew, "How to determine the date of the Traslacion and the Peñafrancia Fiesta - A Special Report" https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2871247302892749&id=100000225236276&sfnsn=mo.

Credits to the owner of the photographs that were utilized for this blogpost.
+AM+DG+

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