The early settlers believed that benevolent spirits were keeping the unique spring for the benefit of the people. When the Spaniards came, they built their church and town plaza a very short distance from the spring. Stories abound about a beautiful lady in a long robe and with long hair fetching water from the spring in the dead of night when almost everyone was asleep and always disappearing before the closed “punta mayor” (main door) of the church as if she lived there, her clothes resembling those worn by the Virgin Mary at the altar. The same mysterious lady was likewise seen on the roof of the bell tower of the church catching with her skirt the cannon balls fired from the sea by the Moro pirates who used to raid the coastal towns of Samar Island during those times, thus preventing the pirates from conquering the town of Borongan: a blessed place with a miraculous spring protected by the Virgin Mary, its Patron Saint.
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For more than two decades now the Borongan Water Festival ( Padul-ong ) has been attracting tourists and pilgrims to the Borongan fiesta every September.
Promoted by the Borongan City government with the support of the Department of Tourism and the provincial government of Eastern Samar as a principal tourism come-on, this event has become a major tourist attraction in the Philippines eclipsing the Ati-Atihan of kalibo and the Penafrancia Festival of Naga. Held on the same month as the Penafrancia event, the Borongan Water Festival now draws more tourists and devotes nationwide except among the Bicolanos. The Borongan Festival is a celebration of water, which is the life of the city. It gives the Borongan a defining identity and unique character. This coincides with the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of Borongan.
Legend has it that during the early days, long before the Spaniards arrived, what is now Poblacion ( Sawang ) in the old town was still forested and the major settlement of native hunters-farmers-gatherers was at Sabang near the mouth of the Borongan River. These early settlers got all their water needs from the river, and nowhere else. It must have been so, that during the rainy months, when tons upon tons of rain water poured day in and day out, the water at the river turns brown from the mud carried by the raging floods from the eroded banks, mountain sides and the plains. During these months the only source of drinking water was the rain, the river being useless due to the mud. Since plastic containers were then not available and since earthen jars were scarce, the poor settlers went thirsty amidst all the floods. This was the situation year in and year out, for centuries.
The folk of the village would go out in all directions from the in search of game; upstream to the mountains, northward to the hills and narrows plains and southward, up to the Loom river. It must be during these hunting excursions to the wide and forested plains of the south sandwiched between the twin rivers Borongan and Loom that they discovered the existence of a unique spring in a depression in the ground hidden under the cool shade of a giant hamorawon trees. Wild deer, wild pigs and other game came to this watering hole during the dry months to quench their thirst where the hunters wait in ambush. The hunters from Sabang ( Borongan ) liked the water and the place, so they stayed. Since then they were called “Boronganons”, having come from the Borongan river, they also called the new settlement Borongan after the fog or “borong” that blanketed the wide plain between the Loom river and the Borongan River every morning. The spring they simply called “tobig”. Its water was abundant even during the dry months, and during the rainy months it do not become brown even when the Loom and The Borongan were already raging and swollen brown from the floods upstream.
The water from the spring was so cold and delicious having gone thru years of natural filtration underground from the roots of the trees in the rain forest, free of amputees but rich in herbal juice unlike the exposed waters of the twin rivers. The spring later acquired the name Hamorawon Spring, after the giant hamorawon tree around it giving it the cool shade and the mesh of underground roots that filtered its water.
There were no roads then. The Pilgrims from the other towns came to Borongan on foot or by “velos”, a small sailboat, a journey of several days in some cases, to participate in the nine-day novena for the town fiesta and in the solemn mass in fiesta day itself. Before returning home after the fiesta, it was a must for them to take a dip in the cool pool of the Hamorawon Spring. And they always filled a bottle or two with water from the spring to take home for they believed it could cure diseases. During those days the Borongan fiesta was the biggest event of the year in the eastern part of Samar Island, after Christmas and Holy Week. It still is until now. The people of Borongan are the friendlier and more hospitable people among the naturally fun loving Warays. These culture traits must have been reinforced during those long centuries of novenas and fiestas when the people of Borongan played host yearly to an exodus of complete strangers whom they welcomed into their homes with open arms and gladly gave them free board and lodging during the fiesta period, and sometimes even longer. During fiestas, a complete stranger was welcome to any house for him to have his fill of food and drinks. Feeding and comforting travelers, specially pilgrims, was a favor and not a burden.