Basaan: A very un-Filipino 'tradition'

LAST week, a lot of people in my social media network were talking about San Juan City's annual celebration of the "Basaan" Festival held on June 24, 2024. In particular, revelers in San Juan were caught on video blatantly splashing water on people who looked like they were headed for work or school. In the snippets of videos that I saw circulating in social media, I clearly saw two contrasting images: the expression of excitement and lust on the faces of the splashers and the fear, anxiety, annoyance and exasperation of the ones being splashed.

I understand the connection between water and the feast day of John the Baptist, the patron saint of San Juan, celebrated every June 24th. According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, John was the son of Zachariah, a priest of the Temple of God and Elizabeth, kinswoman of Mary mother of Jesus. John grew to become a preacher around the Jordan River "demanding repentance and baptism from his hearers in view of the approach of the Kingdom of God." He was a preacher whose popularity was growing and often attracted large crowds as he administered baptism through immersion in water. Jesus himself asked John to baptize him through immersion in water. Later, John was imprisoned — and eventually beheaded — for publicly chastising Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, for divorcing his wife and taking Herodias, his sister-in-law (wife of his brother Herod II), as his new wife.