When In Manila, here’s one holiday you might want to take note of – not because you get gifts or because you get to see cool fireworks, but because you are going to get WET!
The City of San Juan Philippines in Metro Manila is named after St. John the Baptist who was the person that supposedly baptized Jesus Christ himself with water. So to commemorate this, every June 24, which is the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist; people of San Juan, Manila celebrate this by wetting everyone they see!
Kids run around with buckets of water, and houses turn on their hoses and squirt any unsuspecting on-comers and firetrucks roam the streets in mayhem just to get people wet.
Sounds fun, right?
WRONG!
See, this would be perfectly cool and awesome if this was some sort of national holiday where we stayed home and just ran out in our bikinis to bask in some water wasting activities… but nooooo…. it’s actually a work day and San Juan happens to have one of the biggest business districts in the country! In other words, we are suited up for work.
Thankfully, I had my doors locked in my car as some crazy people tried to open the door while holding buckets in their hands. I later on heard horror stories about people commuting to work or riding bikes to work who forgot about this or who weren’t expecting it to reach a certain street or something… well, they got completely drenched!
So anyway, When in Manila and you’re not working, then go have some fun by wetting yourself at the “Araw ng San Juan” or San Juan Day Festival. However, if you have work or aren’t ready to get wet, do make sure to avoid the city of San Juan on June 24 every year… unless of course, you like going to the office drenched.
Oh my, I miss this experience! Naenjoy ko yan nung bata up until I was 10 years old. Medyo marami ngang nagagalit lalo na pag may importanteng pupuntahan and then wholla, the big splash!
It actually doesn’t just happen in San Juan. Here in our area, Navotas and Malabon, there are also people who celebrate it. I almost was a victim of this celebration while on a jeep on my way to work 2 years ago. Good thing the jeepney driver was ready and had all the windows closed. He also scolded the kids who tried to enter the jeep to get us wet. *LoL*