MORE than 100 people paraded through the streets of Callington to celebrate Filipino culture and festival on

Saturday.

This was the second Filipino event held in South West — Tavistock hosted the festival of Santo Nino de Cebu last year.

Filipinos from all over Devon and Cornwall, dressed in national costume, gathered at Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church, to take part in two traditional Filipino religious festivals, Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May) and Santacruzen.

Flores de Mayo, which honours the blessed Virgin Mary, has been celebrated during the month of May in the Phillipines since 1854.

Santacruzen depicts the searching and finding of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, who was a new convert to Christianity.

After the Holy Cross was found in Jerusalem and brought back to Rome, it was welcomed with a joyful celebration of thanksgiving.

In Callington children made floral offerings and the statue of Our Lady was blessed and the rosary recited before a service of Holy Mass was taken by Father Danny Longland. This was followed by a procession through the town and dancing.

Organiser Merlyn McGuire, a Filipino who has spent many years in the UK and is now married to an Englishman and lives in Callington, said people came from Exeter, Torquay, Ivybridge and Holsworthy to join in the celebration.

'There was an enormous number of people,' she said. 'Last year's event in Tavistock started to bring all the Filipinos together and make friendships and that is what this is all about.

'Coming to the UK you can feel very isolated so this is a good way of making friends and it is also to show the British people some of our beautiful culture and heritage.'

Mrs McGuire said she had had wonderful support from the local churches and the Bishop of Plymouth was keen to host an event in the city in the future.