Well! 50 years ago the LDS missionaries were allowed into the Philippines to teach people about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To celebrate this special anniversary all over the Philippines different area's are having these amazing cultural celebrations filled with singing and dancing.
Our area held our Jubiliee celebration last Saturday. It was amazing and totally blew my expectations out of the water. There were colourful costumes, choirs and amazing dancing. The show started with a brief history of the church growth here on Negros Occidental and the first pioneers that helped make all that growth happen. At one point the first pioneer members here in our province got up on stage and performed their own musical number for us! It was humbling to hear of the dedication it took these people to get to church every Sunday and the time they must have put in to teach new church members and keep the church strong and functioning.
The show was held at a huge coliseum without air conditioning. Thankfully Ryan got to hang out in the lighting/sound booth because he was the dude in charge of the sounds and slide shows so when the kids were getting overheated they got to sneak into the booth for a while and cool off. We sat up at the very top row with a view directly to the stage so that we could be close to Ryan and his 'team' so although we were far making it hard to get pictures, we got an amazing view of everyone.
There was the stage and the floor where the choir and dancers performed while the audience surrounded them. Of course the primary (children 3-11 years old) got up and sang this amazing medley all dressed in white. It set the perfect tone for the evening. Along with the singing was a slide show with pictures of the pioneers and sharing their experiences. Then the dancing began. It was by far the best part of the evening. They were all so well practiced and captivating. I loved the show. They had traditional dances in the traditional dress. My kids recognized one of the outfits as what they wear to school during Filipino day and so they were immediately interested in that specific dance. I have to add the man in charge of the music did a perfect job!
Then they had the dances that had to do with the festivals in that area. These were vibrant costumes with loud upbeat music pumping the entire coliseum. They were the funnest to watch with all the high energy and jumping around. I couldn't imagine running around in their costumes in that heat! I was sweating buckets just sitting, it was gross.
The show ended with all the different dancers filing out together to fill the floor. The choirs were on the stage with the exception of the primary who came out onto the floor with the dancers and got to play with the balloons that fell from the sky.
The best part of seeing everyone in their fancy costumes together on stage was when the first 10 pioneer church members from our province came out in a line to the front of the crowd. It was amazing to think that these 10 people had helped build something strong enough to grow to the overflowing floor space and stage. It was the perfect finale!
Happy 50th Jubilee Cultural Celebration Philippines!!
There was the stage and the floor where the choir and dancers performed while the audience surrounded them. Of course the primary (children 3-11 years old) got up and sang this amazing medley all dressed in white. It set the perfect tone for the evening. Along with the singing was a slide show with pictures of the pioneers and sharing their experiences. Then the dancing began. It was by far the best part of the evening. They were all so well practiced and captivating. I loved the show. They had traditional dances in the traditional dress. My kids recognized one of the outfits as what they wear to school during Filipino day and so they were immediately interested in that specific dance. I have to add the man in charge of the music did a perfect job!
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