The schedule of the activities of the Peñafrancia festivities has literally taken not a few by surprise. And surprised they are because the dates of the festivities have come too early this year with the Traslacion on coming even before the Nativity of Mary on September 8. Many are used to join the Traslacion on the day after the town fiesta in Calabanga on September 8.

        Not this year. According to the calendar of activities of the Peñafrancia festivities, the Traslacion is on September 7 and the festivities proper are on September 15 and 16.

        In previous years, the Traslacion used to be done after September 8 and the fiesta proper would be on any of the days from September 20 to September 24. This was when in September there were four Sundays.

        Not this year. This year there are five Sundays in September, just as there were in 2001. This five-Sunday emergence happens every six years and the surprise of having an early Peñafracia fiesta this year brings to the fore the manner by which the Peñafrancia fiesta is reckoned.

        How is the Peñafrancia fiesta determined? Obviously the Catholic Church of Caceres must have a, method for reckoning the fiesta. The Decree dated April 8, 1905 easily comes to mind which contains the phrase that the Peñafracia fiesta in September shall “be permanently transferred to the Sunday after the octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God.”

        Obviously, from this Decree, the fiesta proper of the Virgin of Peñafrancia does not depend on the Traslacion. It is the other way around. The Traslacion is determined by the Peñafrancia fiesta. Equally obvious in this decree is that the fiesta proper is on “the Sunday after the octave of the Nativity of Mary — not the Sunday within the octave, not the Sunday on the octave.

        A little of pre-school counting will help us determine the Peñafrancia fiesta. If by octave we mean eight days, then the eighth day after September 8 (the Nativity of Mary) is September 16 which is a Sunday. But this cannot be said to be the day for the Peñafrancia fiesta because September 16 is still part of the octave, not the Sunday after the octave and the decree says “the Sunday after the octave (eighth day) of the Nativity of Mary.” The Sunday then after the eighth day of the Nativity of Mary is September 23. This Sunday and the Saturday before it — September 22 and 23 — will then be the Peñafrancia fiesta days. And counting nine days backwards, September 13, a Friday, will be Traslacion day.

        This, however, seems to be not the method followed by the Catholic Church of Caceres. In its interpretation of octave, the counting of eight days starts with September 8, not with September 9. It still holds on to the old manner of counting the octave. It must be emphasized here that there are only two octaves in the Catholic Church today-- the Octaves of Christmas and Easter. There is no longer an octave called the Octave of the Nativity of Mary which was scrapped way back in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Hence the word “octave” used in the decree should be taken in another sense, not in the strictest sense of the word “octave”. If The Archdiocese of Caceres is using the old manner for octave counting today, then its Marian liturgy is 37 years behind.

        The Catholic Church of Caceres owes the devotees of the Virgin of Peñafrancia an explanation on the proper manner for determining the Peñafrancia fiesta. They do not deserve a haphazard reckoning. Nor an arbitrary calendar.