Chargé d’affaires a.i. Juan E. Dayang Jr. (seated right) with Filipino community members of Türkiye commemorating the Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan Festival in Ankara. (Photo courtesy of The Hope of OFWs)

ANKARA, 06 June 2022 – The Philippine Embassy in Ankara joined the Filipino community to celebrate the Flores de Mayo and Pistahan (Festival) in Ankara, organized by The Hope of OFWs at the Ankara Milli Gym in Çankaya on Sunday, 04 June 2023.

Chargé d’affaires a.i. Juan E. Dayang Jr. poses with the Sagalas (muses) from Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul during the Santacruzan parade.  (photo courtesy of The Hope of OFWs and Embassy).

Chargé d’affaires a.i. Juan E. Dayang Jr. with the officials of The Hope of OFWs, organizers of the Flores de Mayo, Santacruzan, and Pistang Pinoy in Ankara. (Embassy photo)

The event highlighted two popular Filipino traditions: the Flores de Mayo, a Filipino festival and Catholic tradition held in the Philippines during the whole month of May in honor of the Virgin Mary, and the Santacruzan, a colorful pageant parade of sagalas, or muses. After the parade, The participants from Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul offered flowers to the image of the Virgin Mary.

Filipino earthquake survivors from Hatay who have relocated to Ankara and Istanbul participate in The Hope of OFWs’ Flores de Mayo, Santacruzan and Pistang Pinoy in Ankara. Also in the photo are Chargé d’affaires a.i. Juan E. Dayang Jr. (Center) and Cultural Officer Vanesa Sumera (far right). (Embassy photo)

More than one hundred guests from the various local Filipino community organizations attended this celebration, including earthquake survivors Filipinos from Hatay who have relocated to Ankara and Istanbul. The food festival highlighted a variety of Filipino homemade delicacies, such as lumpia, kutsinta, biko, puto, and ginataang bilo-bilo.

The Flores de Mayo is a Catholic Marian devotion by offering flowers to the Virgin Mary and the recitating the Rosary. The Santacruzan, on the other hand, commemorates the discovery of the True Cross of Christ in Jerusalem in 321 AD by St. Helena of the Cross, the mother of Constantine the Great. END