When people say that they’re going to Dangwa to buy
flowers, they’re actually referring to the Dangwa flower market, aka the
Bulaklakan ng Maynila, where colorful fresh flowers are sold, that section of
Sampaloc, Manila bounded by Laong Laan, Dos Castillas and Dimasalang streets, and
a block away from the University of Santo Tomas.
The Dangwa bus terminal is located right there, and
that’s where boxes of cut flower varieties grown in La Trinidad up in the
Cordilleras are unloaded for the picking of stall owners in the market. According to them, the floral supplies arrive
almost every five hours from Baguio during peak seasons just like the week
approaching Valentine’s Day.
This floral market has also become the hub of floral
supplies being flown in from Cebu, Davao and even South America (they sell Ecuadorian
roses!).
During Holy Week, the market teems with Malaysian mums,
chrysanthemums and dendrobium orchids of various colors. At Yuletide, it’s the red of potted
poinsettias that dominates among the many hues of the usual arrays of cut
flowers.
For Valentine’s Day, the Dangwa flowers are predominantly
red, orange, yellow and white roses, although the stalls offer a variety of
choices, depending on one’s pocket, like stems of stargazer lilies, cut or
potted sunflowers, carnations, and cuttings of the usual mums and alstroemeria
or princess lilies.
Ready-to-go bouquets are expensive, the pre-Valentine price
ranging from Php400 to 600 ($10-15) depending on the number of roses and other
companion flowers that make them up. The
“I love you” trio of rose buds cost around Php200 ($5). One
can imagine how much a stem of red rose will cost on Valentine’s Day itself. The bagsak presyo (big price drop), vendors
say, would come after three days yet since there are late buying Valentinos.
According to those who know the flower trade, the best
option is to buy roses by the bundle (24 stems), better if newly arrived, which
could be just about half the price of a bouquet. The only additional expense
would be for sprigs of white baby’s breath flowers (optional), the Japanese
paper sheath, ribbons, and the token fee for the flower arranger, and there are
plenty of them in the vicinity.
If not Dangwa flowers, there are also small teddy bears
arranged like floral bouquets in the market.
For those who can only afford a token symbol of affection, there’s a
balloon man roaming around with red heart shaped balloons printed with “I love
you.”
Dangwa calls to mind that the (St.) Valentine’s Day trappings
came with the Americans almost a century ago, probably by the late 1920s or
early 1930s. This can be gleaned from
the advertisement for valentines (valentine cards) in the Philippine Magazine
of February 1935, which described them to have gained “increasing popularity
... during the past few years,” and thus a “big stock and an extensive variety”
were needed before February 14 that year.
During those years, the senders of valentines could
select the message they want to convey:
“real, sentimental, or burlesque,” according to the ad. The last one is
supposed to elicit laughter from the recipient, the “LOL” in today’s tweeted,
texted, or chatted messages.
It appears that this romanticized culture was fostered
among boys and girls of the generations before the Second World War. They were taught to make cards to send to
their choice of valentines: “your mother, your teacher, your classmate, your
friend, anybody whom you care for,” as one children’s magazine of 1939 vintage
put it.
The 1970’s young generation chose from racks of
valentines at the bookstores to send via snail mail, but they had the
Valentine’s telegram as an alternative to ensure that the love message was read
no later than February the fourteenth.
There was a choice of the message code, which the receiving telegraph
machine would type out in full on paper with pre-selected romantic design,
usually roses or two superimposed hearts pierced by Cupid’s arrow.
According to reports, the market for flowers around the
Dangwa bus terminal also started to develop in the mid-1970’s, and becoming the
hub it is today in the 1980's.
Red, red roses then from Dangwa to say,”Be My
Valentine!” this Friday.