Popular Religiosity and Festivals: And They Danced with Joy before the Lord: The Subli Festival of Bauan, Batangas

More than a dance form, Subli is a religous ritual
that venerates the Holy Cross

Dance has always been an essential component of worship of people of various religious and cultural traditions. Man of times past up to the present, uses a variety of movements of his body – hands, hips, arms, legs and head in rhythmic successions and  combinations as a form of prayer, to express worship and reverence to God.

In the historic town of Bauan, Batangas exists a traditional religious dance form called the “subli” which people perform to venerate the santo patron – the Mahal na Poong Santa Cruz. The ceremonial worship dance is usually presented during the town’s fiesta which is traditionally held every May 3. 

It has also been tradionally practiced that every May 1 and 2 each year, the towns of Alitagtag and Bauan celebrate the Anubing Sublian Festival to pay homage and reverence to the Mahal na Poong Sta. Cruz.  The festival highlights the dancing of the Subli. 

Short History of the Parish of Bauan, Batangas

The parish of Bauan was founded as a visita of Taal in 1590 on the slopes of Mount Maculot, along Taal Lake's southern shore.  Then parish priest of Taal, Fr. Diego de Avila would visit periodically and attend to the spiritual needs of the settlement.  For a time, Bauan was also referred to as Segundo Hijo de Taal because it is where the second visita of Taal was established. 

Bauan was made into an independent parish on May 12, 1596, becoming the fifth parish to be established in the province of Batangas by the Augustinian missionaries, who were the primary evangelizers of the settlements that developed around Lake Bombom (now Taal Lake).  Fr. Ildefonso Bernal was appointed first parish priest. 

In 1641, the parish of bauan was placed under the guidance of the Immaculate Conception and hence forth called the Immaculate Conception Parish although since 1596, when it was established, the Mahal na Poong Santa Cruz had since been its patron. 

The town transferred places due to the violent eruptions of Taal Volcano while the church has to be re-built several times because of such transfers and of the other calamities that hit the town like earthquakes and a typhoon which wrought destruction to the church.  It was Fr. Simon Martinez who relocated the town in its present site in 1692. The current church was built in 1762 by Fr. Jose Victoria and Don Juan Bandino.  A fort was also built in 1775 to protect the town from Moro raids. A fire razed the church  during the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1898 and again in 1928.   It has been restored since then.  The church houses the Holy Cross of Bauan, the patron saint of the town.

They Danced Their Prayer

The term Subli originated from the word “subsob” which means to fall, face down and “bali” (accent on the second syllable) which means broken. This is interpreted in the way the male dancers look down and also the way the dancers move in steps. Others say that it came from the word “sobli” meaning “salisi” or the exchange of places which Is a prominent feature of the dance. 

But more than a dance form, subli is a religious ritual, a “panata” or a solemn promise or vow to the Holy Cross as a thanksgiving for all the blessings that were granted by praying to the Mahal na Poon. It is also believed that the cross has the power to ward off evil spirits. 

Subli is also an element of a religious play with its long sequence of prayers in the form of verses, songs and dances. The dance form tells the narrative of the journey of the Manunubli, early tribes who settled in Bauan as they go through the fields, hills and rivers in search of the miraculous cross. It consists of lengthy prayers, songs and dances in predetermined arrangement. Sections of verse are sung to a fixed punto or skeletal melody. 

About five of these punto are used in a complete subli performance. These sections may be divided further into various stances, gestures, and movements of the male dancers are freewheeling and dramatic, consisting of leaping, striking the ground with kalaste (wooden bamboo clappers held in both hands), and other movements suggesting the martial arts. The women circle on half-toe, performing the talik (small refined gestures with wrists and fingers), their fingers grazing the small-brimmed hats and alampay (triangular scarf worn loosely over the shoulder)that are the essential parts of their costume. They dance and sing, to the rhythm beaten out by a stick on the tugtugan, a goblet-shaped, footed drum of langka wood with a head made of iguana skin. 

The Legend of the Twin Crosses of Alitagtag and Bauan, Batangas 

Twin Crosses of Bauan and Alitagtag,
Batangas

In the year 1595, five years after the visita of Bauan was established, a huge cross made of anubing, a local hardwood in the same species of breadfruit, Artocorpus cumingiana, was found in an area called Dingin near what is now the town of Alitagtag (Alitagtag during that time was still part of Bauan). It was a promontory overlooking the sea on the north, and Mount Makulot on the east. The cross was believed to have protected the town of Bauan and its people from pestilence, locusts, droughts and volcanic eruptions. 

The cross was made from a very sturdy post of a demolished house and erected in the village of Alitagtag to drive away a plague of ghosts. The cross has the following physical description: 2.5 meters in height with a 1 meter crosspiece. The cross was also said to have walked around the village (perhaps to drive away the ghosts) and that water gushed from one of its arms. 

Such is the devotion of the people to the  Cross, that the Augustinian Fr. San Agustin wrote in his chronicle that the natives brought the cross to the crater of Taal Volcano to pacify it during its eruption in 1611. 

The miraculous cross had attracted many devotees and it was decided that the cross be transferred to the bigger Bauan parish church after attempts of other nearby parish priests failed. It was said that the priest from the nearby town of Cuenca came and tried to pull out the cross but to no avail. The cross would nio bulge. Another priest tried to bring the cross to his church in Taal, another nearby town, but was prevented from doing so when the sky turned gray and loud thunderbolts and dreadful lightnings went across the sky. Finally, the priest from Bauan attempted to pull the cross and it came out quickly and lifted itself up, probably a sign that it wanted to be venerated in Bauan. It was taken to Bauan and became its patron. 

The Parish Church of Bauan, Batangas

Unfortunately, before its enshrinement in Bauan, the cross diminished in size because devotees chipped away pieces of the cross and made miniature replicas to be worn as necklace talismans. The parish priest got worried that the cross would be all used up so they cut the cross in half and made another cross out of the bottom part and gave it to the parish of Alitagtag. The cross was also enclosed in silver so people could not chip it anymore. It featured a sun embossed with a human face in silver at the center with radiating rays where the arms intersect. 

The cross was transferred to various unknown locations to escape the violent eruptions of Taal Volcano before it settled in Dingin near the lake in the late 17th century.  It was later on moved to Binukalan.

Since the creation of the "twin crosses" it has been a tradition that every year, in the morning of May 2, the "twin crosses" would be paraded and would meet in Barangay Concordia, which devotees call Salubong. The twin crosses of Bauan and Alitagtag will be mounted on a float and will be brought to Barangay Binukalan for the celebration of the Mass, the recitation of luwa (poetry) and the dancing of Subli. 

In the afternoon, the twin crosses will again be mounted on the float to be brought to Bauan. On the way to Bauan, devotees gather at the sides of the street where they threw flowers as a sign of their reverence to the crosses as the motorcade passed by.  

When the motorcade reached the Manghinao Bridge, the two crosses will be brought into the town proper in a procession, towards the patio of the parish church where Subli Dancers from Barangay Sinala and other devotees await to pay homage to the  Mahal na Poong Sta. Cruz.

The cross has been an integral part of the community life and heritage of the towns of Bauan and Alitagtag. The Parish of Alitagtag also made the cross as their patron. Bauan celebrates its fiesta on May 3 to honor the Holy Cross while Alitagtag on May 7.  

References:

History of Bauan retrieved from http://sangguniangbayan-bauan.blogspot.com/2012/05/bauan-history.html on June 25, 2020.

Rivera-Mirano Elena, et.al.  "Subli: Isang Sayaw sa 4 na Tinig" retrieved from https://www.accu.or.jp/ich/en/arts/A_PHL4.html on June 15, 2020.

What is Subli? retrieved from https://subliblog.com/2018/01/11/what-is-subli/ June 23, 2020.

What do you know about the Holy Cross of Alitagtag?  retrieved from https://subliblog.com/2020/01/19/what-do-you-know-about-the-holy-cross-of-alitagtag/ on June 19, 2020. 

Photos: CTTO