Determining the Feast Day of Our Lady of Peñafrancia

        Like many others, I also used to say that the Fiesta of Our Lady of Peñafrancia occurs every 3rd Sunday of September. This is true most of the time, but not always.

        The feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is not fixed on one date, but is fixed on the Sunday after the octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

        What used to be celebrated on the first Sunday of July was moved to September when then Apostolic Administrator Jorge Barlin’s petition was granted by Rome through the issuance of a rescript in 1905 which indicated the feast day on: “Dominicae post Octavam Nativitatis ejusdem Deiparae Virginis.” This is translated in English as: ‘the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity of the same Virgin Mother of God.’

        any are not aware of this formula. Besides, it may not be easily understandable –somewhat complicated since needs the determination of three things: (1) the Nativity of the Virgin Mary; (2) the Octave of the Nativity; and (3) the Sunday after the octave.

        To determine the feast day, the following procedure may be followed:

        First, look for the date of the Nativity of the BVM, that is, September 8.

        Second, determine the Octave of the Nativity by counting 8 days beginning with the day of the Nativity itself, September 8. In doing so, one ends with September 15. Thus, the octave of September 8 is always September 15.

        Finally, look for the Sunday that immediately follows September 15. This Sunday is the Solemn Feast of the Virgin of Peñafrancia.

        Keeping in mind the instruction of the rescript, it may be said that the fiesta of the Virgin of Peñafrancia falls on the Sunday that immediately follows the 15th of September. This is a rather simplistic way of saying it.

On the Matter of the Octave
        There could be a miscalculation of the fiesta. A misinterpretation of the word ‘Octave’ may result to this.

        Octava in Latin means eight (8). The Webster dictionary defines octave as: (1) An 8-day period of observances beginning with a festival day. (2) A musical interval embracing eight diatonic degrees. Liturgically, an octave is “a liturgical practice of commemorating a Church feast over a period of eight days, beginning with the feast day itself. The eight and final day is known as the octave day.” Thus we have the term ‘octava’ and ‘novena’ or ‘novenario’ for a nine-day celebration.

        The Traslacion is done two Fridays before the feast day itself so that a novenario may be completed, beginning from the day of the Traslacion itself until the Saturday of the Fluvial procession. The Sunday that follows it is the Solemn Feast day.

        There are currently two octave celebrations in the whole Catholic Church, namely: Christmas and Easter. The octave of Christmas, December 25, is January 1. The octave of Easter Sunday is the Sunday that immediately follows it. In both cases octave means 8 days and/or the 8th day.

        In the past, there were other octave celebrations for the universal church. They have been abolished and only these two were retained. However, the particular rescript issued to Nueva Caceres regarding the feast day of Ina was not abolished. And even if it were abolished, such abrogation does not change the meaning of the octave. Octave retains its meaning of eight. An examination of the same rescript will show that our celebration is not simply an octava celebration, but a novenario, followed by a solemn feast day, and the succeeding days until the octave of the feast day.

        With this manner of reckoning, it is not surprising that the date of the fiesta is movable. However, the manner itself neither arbitrary nor indiscriminate.

Previous Fiesta Celebrations
        To illustrate more concretely the phenomenon of the movable dates of the fiesta, below is a table of the fiesta celebrations since 1974. In the rows below, the first date refers to the day of the Traslacion and the second date refers to the Solemn Feast day of Ina. For example, in 1974, the Traslacion was on September 13 and the feast day was on September 22.



        From the data above, the following conclusions can be derived.

        1. Most the time the fiesta occurred on the 3rd Sunday of September. But it had not always been so. There were years when the fiesta fell on the 4th Sunday of September. See for example the years 1974, 1985, 1991, 1996, 2002. In those years, the 1st day of September fell on a Sunday.

        Therefore, in this mode of reckoning, whenever September 1 falls on a Sunday, the fiesta will necessarily fall on the 4th Sunday of September. This seldom happens, however. In the next six years the fiesta will be on the 3rd Sunday of September. But in 2013 and 2019, the feast will be on the 4th Sunday of September.

        2. This year, 2007, although the feast occurred on the third Sunday of September, the Traslacion was held a day before the Nativity of Mary (September 7). The same thing happened in the years 1979, 1984, 1990 and 2001.

        3. There were likewise occasions when the Traslacion was done on the day of the Nativity itself. See for example the years: 1978, 1989, 1995, 2000, and 2006.

Conclusion
        In a span of at least 34 years, as the table above proves, the dates, on which the feast day of Ina were celebrated in the Archdiocese of Caceres, consistently corresponded to the instructions of the rescript. All these years, the manner of determining the fiesta has not changed.

        Using the same manner indicated in the rescript, the date of the Traslacion and Solemn Feast day of Our Lady of Peñafrancia during these years of the Tricentenary celebrations will be as follows:

        Year 2008 – Traslacion: Sept. 12 - Feast day: Sept. 21
        Year 2009 – Traslacion: Sept. 11 - Feast day: Sept. 20
        Year 2010 – Traslacion: Sept. 10 - Feast day: Sept. 19

        I hope this endeavor of explaining how the date of the feast day is determined would help clarify doubts and afford us an opportunity to look back as we continue to Remember the Gift of the Devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia.