Countywide : Filipinos to Celebrate a Centuries-Old Festival

Filipino Americans in Orange County will celebrate a centuries-old festival at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Laguna Hills on Saturday.

The daylong event is the first-ever observance in the county of the “La Naval” festival. It is sponsored by the Federation of Filipino Rosary Groups, which has more than 1,000 member families.

Bishop Norman F. McFarland of the Diocese of Orange will officiate an 11 a.m. Mass. He will be assisted by four Catholic priests from the Philippines who are assigned to different parishes in Orange County.

“Filipinos are not known for being a politically united community,” event coordinator Mel Gallardo said. “But what binds us together are our religious beliefs.”

The Philippines, the only predominantly Christian country in Asia, is about 80% Catholic. “La Naval” is celebrated in many rural towns with boat parades and religious processions to mark the defeat of a Dutch naval force that tried to invade the country in the 1700s.

A combined force of Spanish and Filipino soldiers turned back the Dutch, who briefly occupied Manila. The Philippines was a colony of Spain from the 1500s until 1898, when an American fleet routed a Spanish armada at Manila Bay.

The Philippines became a U.S. colony, was then occupied by the Japanese for three years during World War II and became independent in 1946.

About 500 Filipinos are expected at Saturday’s event, which will feature Filipino folk dances and songs by Los Angeles and Orange county cultural groups.

St. Nicholas Catholic Church is at 24252 El Toro Road in Laguna Hills. For more information, call (714) 837-1090.