UP Ibalon Bicol

The day before the Thanksgiving Mass at the Penafrancia Basilica which marks the end of Ina’s September feast, the fluvial procession in Naga River brings the voyadores---the all-men boat crew of the Patroness of Bicol tasked to bring the image of Nuesta Senora de Penafrancia to its abode in Balatas village.

UP Ibalon’s Wilma Rojas shows her interesting collection of river scenes showing the men who brave the murky river in 2007’s river parade. It gives a preview of the religiosity, reverly, and merriment of the procession's reenaction on Saturday, September 20, 2008. Uniquely absent are the women who are asked to just watch at the side with the children. Traditionally, the women are disallowed to be in the boats where only men are privileged to be with the Virgin's icon as she courses home to be in her shrine. =0=