I finally finished resizing and editing my photos from the Cagayan de Oro (CdeO) fiesta months ago.
The official name of the city fiesta is ‘Kagay-an Festival’, which is held every 26th to the 28th of August, in honor of Saint Augustine of Hippo, Cagayan de Oro’s patron saint. In accordance with the celebrations, the local malls also decorate their interiors with fiesta props and colors.
Decors inside Limketkai mall in CdeO during the fiesta
There was also an expo to promote products from CdeO and the surrounding provinces.
An expo inside Limketkai Mall
My dad came home from Manila at the same time so we had a chance to enjoy the events in the city with him and his brand new car: a Nissan SUV. As per Filipino Roman Catholic tradition, he had the car blessed by a priest, and the church we went to is the San Agustin Cathedral of CdeO.
The tower of San Agustin Cathedral, CdeO
Of course, a celebration is not complete without food!
My dad holding up his last piece of food from a large serving in a restaurant
Fairs and amusement parks were also set up for the festival days only.
The ferris wheel inside one of the fairs during the fiesta
My favorite event during the fiesta was the pyrotechnics competition held inside SM City Mall. Provinces outside Mindanao also participated but we only got to see the last 4 displays because we were horribly delayed by traffic. A two-hour drive from our home turned into at least a 4-hour drive due to the ongoing construction on the highway and the huge amount of people that also wanted to see the fireworks!
Case in point:
View of the parking lot from one side of the SM City mall
We were met with the same sight on all sides of the mall. Even the carpark building was packed.
But all the difficulties were worth it. Even if I only got to see a few displays, they were still amazing. And I got a lot of pictures! I’ll show a few and the rest are in my Facebook album.
AAAHHH!!! Manong, your head is in the way!
The fireworks display in the picture above amazed me the most. I don’t know how they did it, but after the rocket exploded in mid-air, fluorescent red lanterns with green tails appeared and fell from the sky. It was just beautiful in person.
The fountain on SM City grounds. Look closely and you'll see a lot of people standing around it trying to get a good view of the fireworks.
The full image of my header. It's also a photo of one of the fireworks displays.
I look tired. It was already nearing midnight by time we left the mall.
Traffic again on the way back home! We arrived in our house around 2 am in the morning.
mga gihuna-huna 