Bicolanos and devotees of Our Lady of Peñafrancia will gather in Scarborough on Sept. 19 for the annual Peñafrancia Festival, bringing a centuries-old Filipino religious tradition to Lake Ontario.
The celebration will begin at Bluffers Park Yacht Club, 7 Brimley Rd., where participants will assemble at 8 a.m. before the fluvial procession begins at 9 a.m.
More than 20 boats and yachts are expected to join the procession, accompanying the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia across the water.
The celebration continues with a community gathering and picnic at Bluffers Park before concluding with a 7 p.m. mass at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish.
For Bicolanos, the celebration is rooted in devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia, revered as the Principal Patroness and Queen of Bicol.
Every September, thousands of devotees gather in Naga City in the Bicol Region of the Philippines for the Peñafrancia Festival, which centres on prayer, thanksgiving and devotion.
One of its most recognizable traditions is the fluvial procession, during which the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is carried on the water accompanied by devotees.
Thousands of kilometres from the Philippines, Bicolanos in Canada have continued the tradition through the Devotees of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, with support from the Bicol Canada Community Association (BCCA).
BCCA president Earl Francis Dacara said the association works alongside the devotees to help keep the tradition alive and strengthen its presence within the Bicolano and broader Filipino Canadian community.
“Our role in BCCA is to support the Devotees of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and help preserve this beautiful tradition for our community,” Dacara said.
A key part of that effort has been the association’s relationship with the Bluffers Park Yacht Club, whose members have opened their boats and community to Peñafrancia devotees.
The partnership has helped the procession grow from a small number of participating vessels into a larger community tradition on Lake Ontario.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, participation reached 21 boats in 2019.
Since the return of the full celebration, organizers say approximately 20 to 25 boats have taken part in recent processions.
Dacara said the relationship with the yacht club has also helped connect the Bicolano celebration with the wider Canadian community.
“The friendship and partnership we have built with the Bluffers Park Yacht Club have allowed the fluvial procession not only to return strongly after the pandemic, but to grow into something that brings together our faith, our Bicolano heritage and the wider Canadian community,” he said.
The partnership has developed through years of co-operation, volunteerism and support between members of the Bicolano community and the yacht club.
For organizers, maintaining the procession is also a way to pass Bicolano traditions to Filipino Canadians who may not have experienced the festival in the Philippines.
The celebration gives families an opportunity to introduce younger generations to the religious and cultural traditions surrounding Peñafrancia while gathering with other members of the community.
While the Canadian celebration draws inspiration from the Peñafrancia Festival in Naga City, its setting on Lake Ontario has given the procession a distinctly Canadian character.
Instead of following the river procession familiar to devotees in Bicol, boats carrying participants travel across the waters off Scarborough as part of the local observance.
The gathering at Bluffers Park following the procession provides another opportunity for devotees and community members to come together before the evening mass.
For Dacara, continuing Peñafrancia in Canada reflects how Filipino immigrants can maintain connections to their heritage while building a life thousands of kilometres away from the Philippines.
“We may now call Canada home, but our devotion, our culture and our traditions remain part of who we are,” Dacara said.
“Peñafrancia gives us an opportunity to bring those two homes together.”
Luis Miguel De Castro is a Changing Narratives Fund-Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Mabuhay Canada and a journalism graduate at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto. Originally from the Philippines, he is passionate about community storytelling, multimedia journalism, and amplifying Filipino voices through meaningful local coverage.
