Aurora: an evolving Marian devotion in the Philippines

The Aurora has been a popular practice among Catholic communities across Bicol, a region in the Philippines southeast of Manila, for a long time. 

It is a procession of Mary, or the community's patron saint, to drive away an epidemic, protect the locals from calamities, and ask for other intentions. 

Communities near a mountain do the Aurora to ask for the saint's intercession to spare them from eruptions and landslides. 

Usually done in the summer, which falls in April and May in the country, the youth in Barcelona, a coastal town in Sorsogon, organize themselves to prepare and manage the processions. 

They harvest bamboo in the uplands and cut the tubes into torches used in the night processions. 

Then they assign members to collect contributions from the community's youth for the kerosene for lighting the torches. 

Each barangay (the smallest political unit in the country) has its own Aurora, parading the image of Mary and their respective patron saint. 

Usually, the Aurora takes 14 nights divided into two, seven nights for Mary, other seven for the patron saint. 

A white cross lantern with a bamboo frame, held by a participant in upright position, leads the parade. A white star lantern, also with a bambo frame, accompanies the cross lantern on both sides. 

The image of Mary, or the patron saint of the barangay, is held in a wooden and open carriage bore on shoulders by two or four participants at the rear of the procession. 

The rest of the participants hold torches made of bamboo tubes. The torches are stored in the chapel after use and refilled with kerosene the following day for the next procession. 

After the processions are completed, the youth climb the uplands again to harvest poles out of trees. The poles are used to make an enclosure, usually square in shape, in a vacant lot in the community – sometimes in a basketball court, or under coconut trees. 

Then they get a sound system and lights and hold a disco for a cause in the enclosure. 

The Aurora youth from other barangays will come to the disco in support of the fundraising. Each barangay Aurora holding a disco for a cause will be supported by other barangay Auroras by going to the dance to help raise fund. 

The proceeds from the disco are used in the improvement and repair of the chapel. 

But the Aurora has evolved, retaining some of its original elements, in a coastal parish in Albay, a province in the Bicol region. 

In the past decades, Aurora processions were observed in the night in many communities, about after six in the evening. 

But the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Salvation in Joroan in Albay has restored the observance of the procession before sunrise  

"The original Aurora is done at dawn," said Noel Andres Madrigal Perdigon, president of Cofradia de Nuestra Senora de Salvacion. "Fr. Joseph is reviving that."

Fr. Joseph Salando is the rector and pastor of the diocesan shrine and parish.

In lieu of daily procession, Joroan does the Aurora every third Saturday of the month at dawn for seven months before the annual town fiesta in August, Perdigon explained. 

"We are trying to institutionalize Aurora and align it with catechism and church teachings," he said. "We emphasize that it is a devotion and the primary form of worship is the Mass."

Superstitions have surrounded the observance of Aurora in the past, Perdigon pointed out. Aligning it with the church teachings would do away the superstitious beliefs that have previously been associated to Aurora. 

Salando was instrumental in integrating catechism and liturgy in Aurora in 2013, he said. Before that, Aurora was purely a popular devotion initiated by the villagers in the barangays. 

The Aurora in Joroan has evolved in the sense that the image of Mary is paraded in a mobile unit, but still at the rear, and the procession ends in a Mass. 

Also, the white star lanterns, which are usually only two, are made 12 to articulate that Aurora is a Marian devotion. A mystery of the Holy Rosary is also recited after chanting the lines of the Gozo. 

This version of Aurora in Joroan started in 2023, Perdigon said. 

In Albay, there is an invitation from the church to use the Nuestra Senora de Salvacion and not any other image of Mary, he added. 

The Aurora procession at dawn probably derived its name from the aurora borealis (Northern lights), which occurs between 10 in the evening and two in the morning. 

This year, the Aurora in Joroan ran from January to July and petitioned for a peaceful solution to the West Philippine Sea row and peace and justice around the world.