June 17, 2009

Patroness of the university and of the country

The Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the Ateneo de Manila University and of the Philippines. So it was not surprising that the short procession from the Manila Cathedral to the ruins of the San Ignacio Church in Intramuros last Sunday included a beautiful statue of her on a richly decorated carroza (float). Both the statue and the carroza are much more ornate than the one the university uses every December.

the Immaculate Conception on a carroza

25 comments:

Olivier said...

vraiment très belle, j'imagine avec les éclairages, elle doit être magnifique.
really very nice. I imagine with illumination, she must be splendid.

Dina said...

Mary looks like the Queen of Heaven here.

Judy said...

It's a beautiful float.

Leif Hagen said...

What a great snap of a fabulous float on a beautiful day by a classy blogger! Hilda of Manila! Lovely!

B SQUARED said...

Virtually all Catholic ceremonies like this have vanished in this country. A shame really.

Unseen India Tours said...

This is so beautiful !! Nice captured..Great one..Unseen Rajasthan

Frank said...

So interesting and well captured.

Is that a really nice new profile photo of you Hilda?

Cezar and Léia said...

What a beautiful ceremony!In Brazil we have this kind of religion event as well with "Nossa Senhora da Aparecida - patroness of Brazil".
Thanks for sharing this adorable picture!
Léia

Halcyon said...

She is fancy!!

stromsjo said...

Richly decorated indeed. A delightful capture with a bit of help from the evening sun I guess.

Anonymous said...

This really is a remarkable photo. It is rich in all the trappings the people expect to see. I would imagine it takes some time to fix the float and then take it apart.

Neva said...

I can not imagine how much time it took to make that.

Chattahoochee Valley Daily said...

It's beautiful.

Kaori said...

Wow! That is very beautiful :)

Lowell said...

Incredible!

George said...

What a beautiful, ornate float. It's absolutely incredible.

James said...

So fancy it reminds me of something from the rose parade in Pasadena California.

Don and Krise said...

It really is beautiful Hilda. So different than the floats we are used to here.

VP said...

Beautiful carroza, this is really a type of float you don't see every day. Sometimes these devotional statues have too many trappings, but this one is... just right.

Priyanka Khot said...

She looks beautiful!

escape said...

that's so elegant of her. i didnt know that it's also the patroness of the country. thanks for sharing.

Hilda said...

Dina:
Goodness, you're right! I didn't even notice until you pointed it out. I'm not familiar with her different images. A friend of mine said that the halo with stars is for the Immaculate Conception, but not the crown. It was the Intramuros Administration that prepared the float. I guess the Jesuits should have advised them. No wonder it's much more ornate than the one the school uses for its annual procession.

Per Stromsjo:
Early morning light, actually :)

Unknown said...

Fantastic carroza! Amazing indeed!

Anak Dokan said...

Hey...it's a beautiful pic of Mary statue.

Tussy said...

What a beautiful