San Juan's Wattah Wattah Festival celebrates the Feast of St. John the Baptist 

Like many Filipino fiestas, the Wattah Wattah Festival celebrated by San Juan City today is deeply connected with faith and religion. 

 

Wattah Wattah Festival celebrates the Feast of St. John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus. To recreate the saint's act he was most known for, San Juan residents revel in "basaan," splashing passersby with water.  

 

"This is spiritual. Bakit kami nagsi-celebrate? This is the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The blessing of Jesus Christ by St. John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Kumbaga, ang fiesta namin, iniisip namin lagi, it is a renewal of faith, renewal of life," San Juan Wattah Wattah Festival committee head Vincent Pacheco said  in a report on GMA News TV's Balitanghali on Wednesday.

 

Former San Juan City Mayor and now Senator JV Ejercito officially renamed the Feast of St. John the Baptist into Wattah Wattah Festival in 2012 and organized a number of activities that go beyond basaan.
 

The day's festivities started with a group of women dancing "karakol," a religious dance procession. It was then followed by a float parade featuring "santong tao," or those who reenacted the life of St. John the Baptist. 

 

The festival also features a competition for the most creative use of plastic bottles, street costume party, and an inter-barangay dance competition.

St. John the Baptist 

 

John the Baptist was the son of Zachary, a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, a relative of Mary. 
 

After living as a hermit, he began to preach on the banks of the Jordan and called men to penance and baptism "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

 

Jesus then came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. The baptist was reluctant at first and said, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?"

 

But Jesus replied, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." 

 

When Jesus left to preach in Galilee, John continued preaching in the Jordan valley. He was arrested at the command of Tetrach Herod Antipas, the first ruler of Galilee and Pere. He was later beheaded.  - TRISHA MACAS/JJ, GMA News