February 11 | Iriga City, Camarines Sur, Philippines

 

A tradition of the first harvest offering coinciding on the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes.

 

The event is derived from the early rituals of the ancient Bicolanos offering their harvest to their own gods as a form of thanksgiving and to seek favor for a more bountiful harvest throughout the year.  It features a long parade of colorfully and grandiosely decorated bull and carabao carts, carrying newly harvested crops, ending with a mass before the Emerald Grotto at Calvary Hills. Here all the offerings are blessed, then distributed to indigent families.

 

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