Cheap Thrills



Transitory brightness, glare, glow, blaze of lights, dazzling, bright, dim, pale, diffused, like a watercolor, dimness, mellow, gentle glow, brightly lit, fluorescent tube, harsh, arc lights, transitory sun, semi-darkness, gloom, half-light. The lights danced across the dark street, each color slowly fading into another, occupying the vacant eyes of every passing stranger.

It doesn’t have to be noble or monumental or grandiose to have nice things, to experience the thrill of life. Sometimes, it could just be the simple lights swaying, hovering and dangling in the air. The paradox of illumination and juxtaposition sitting right between the glamour of series bulbs.

Simballay Festival is the kind of moment where you could just stop and stare at the creations and the creativity of the people, how the house they built enhance your perspective towards the people living in that locality. What I like about it is that, the Simballay Festival highlights the products and the copious amount of commodities in the barangay. Pangutosan flaunted their hut with coconut. It was full of coconut husks adorned with flashing colorful lights, and at the top of their hut stood an enormous half-open coconut exposing its flesh.


The lights were beautiful, swaying and changing and illuminating the dark street of Nabunturan. They could even make the Grinch’s heart melt. Their glow, their shine, everything about them was gorgeous especially the glare of hue underneath the umbrellas, like tiny droplets of rain.


It’s such a sublime festival, an enchanted festival full of lights and colors thriving to radiate the darkness of the night. People showcased their vocal talents through singing in Garbo ng Nabunturan. The night market was flooded with hungry people, smoke wrapped the street and the smell of burnt meats  could entice your nose and make your stomach grumble.

People painted smiles on their lips and their fascination hung thick on their faces. At this phase of time, we can celebrate happiness, we can celebrate the pleasure of being in this world, we can celebrate the ground we're stepping on, we can celebrate the crown of abundance—not in material things but in the love that grows inside us—of living in Nabunturan throughout the years.



For me, it’s all about the lights, it has always been the lights, how they shimmer and stretch, grow and recede, strive and shrink. One moment the light was a singular thing, a path to heaven. The next moment, it was a collection of many, an army made of light marching everywhere.

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