The Fiesta Souvenir Program

The Fiesta Souvenir Program

In the absence of municipal archives, community newspapers, detailed corporate-style annual reports, or at least almanacs, the town's annual fiesta souvenir program is the sole means by which to glean some important information on the early history and culture of the town.

This local publication is produced annually through the close collaboration of volunteers from the municipal government, parish church, and the rest of the private sector at large, including academia, business community, expatriates, and the rest of the residents from all walks.

It is published largely to document the Pista'y Baley or the town's annual fiesta celebrations in honor of the patron saint, St. Vincent Ferrer, and at the same time to commemorate the town's founding day, April 5, 1614, when the then Bayambang chapel officially became a visita (equivalent to parish today) of its mother church in Binalatongan (San Carlos City).

The actual 'program' evolved through the years into a tome (thick book), and the finished product is kept in the hands of the volunteers and all those who paid the biggest advertisements on its pages.

Apart from copies in private hands, today only a few surviving copies in good condition can be accessed at the Municipal Library, and some really old ones (circa 1930s onwards), now crumbling and all donated copies, are sealed in a display cabinet at the Municipal Museum.

The information that may be found in a fiesta souvenir program include messages of felicitation from top local government, parish church, and other local officials and higher-level officials, roster of municipal and school officials and staff, history of the parish church, summary of the patron saint's life story, quick history of Bayambang, down to the different fiesta committee members -- all with accompanying photographs.

At times, a feature article or two may be seen, but around 80-90% of the content are ad placements solicited from all sectors of the community and beyond to fund the printing of the material. From the ads, one can see plainly what sort of businesses thrived and which families here and abroad gave full support. Which business establishments were pioneers in the town (first grocery store, first bank, first private commercial complex, etc.) may also be glimpsed from the black-and-white book-paper inside pages.

With an artfully designed cover page in full color and glossy paper, the book form eventually expanded to contain the roster of barangay officials, Miss Bayambang candidates, full-blown feature articles, the municipal government's accomplishments, and detailed accounts of all fiesta activities with photos.

In the quiet corners of Bayambang, where the rivers of memory flow more freely than the Agno River itself, the fiesta souvenir program stands not merely as a keepsake of celebration, but as a concrete artifact of collective memory, of municipal pride of place and sense of identity. Between its covers lies the heartbeat of a town: the names of its leaders and dreamers, the faded smiles of long-ago queens, the hopeful advertisements of mom-and-pop shops that once dared to believe in a better tomorrow.

It is not perfect — a few pages have obvious errors, typos, inadvertent omissions, and the fingerprints of haste—but therein lies its charm. For unlike the detached objectivity of official archives, it speaks in the warm, imperfect voice of a people proud of their roots, and eager to chronicle their joys, their progress, and their sense of belonging.

Now, as newer generations scroll through glowing screens and the ink of old copies begins to fade, the souvenir program endures as a fragile yet faithful witness. It whispers the story of Bayambang not in grand declarations, but in the tender minutiae that only a hometown can understand: the arc of a parade, the rhythm of prayers, the clamor of a town square on the fifth of April.

In this humble tome, resurrected each year in honor of both saint and soil, the soul of Bayambang continues to speak—quietly, reverently, and with the enduring grace of memory that refuses to be forgotten.