Blog Your Bleesings: Panagbenga celebration

If you haven't experienced the "Panagbenga Festival" of Baguio, you are missing a lot. Panagbenga is a kankanaey term which means "a season of blooming." It is also known as the Baguio Flower Festival, some kind of a tribute to the beautiful flowers the city is famous for.

But for me, Panagbenga celebration brings a different memory. For two years, during the street dancing and float parade "days" of the celebration, we would wake up as early as 3 am in order to be at the store as early as 4 am. This is torture for us since the third week of February is considered the coldest in Baguio. We have to open early and be able to cook enough food before the bulk of customers, usually tourists, would come in. I, together with the assistant managers and the crew would be on our feet from early morning till late in the afternoon. I witnessed how the crew persevered and how the managers supported the team members. It was a picture of team work and hard work.

Just like the flowers of Panagbenga, my team blooms during this period. They are blooming in the spirit of team work and hardwork.

I miss my team. I miss being "in action". But I have chosen to be just an observer now. A proud observer of how the flowers and the people bloom.