The Philippine calendar of public holidays this year
includes the three days before Easter: Maundy Thursday to Black Saturday, the
last declared as special non-working day.
Those who go on vacation leave starting on Holy Monday, the last week of
Lent becomes full immersion time on tatak
Pinoy folk religious practices even while having fun in the countryside or
on the beach in one’s coastal town, or enjoying the cooler clime of Baguio.
The Pinoy catholic opens his Semana Santa (Mahal na Araw)
by attending the church services of Domingo (de) Ramos, or Palm Sunday, with a ramos
or palaspas, artfully fashioned from the leaflets of a young coconut frond. In the San Antonio town of Zambales, people use
the fronds of the palm-like pitogo plant found only in the rugged hills of the
province, the Cycas zambalensis.
In some places, Palm Sunday rites include a procession of
the image of Jesus on a donkey, or the parish priest himself rides a pony to
the church, to re-enact the triumphal entry of Jesus to Jerusalem. In Malolos City, the women spread out their tapis
or cloths on the path of the procession.
The church goer makes sure to have his/her palaspas
blessed by the priest. This is brought
home and tucked in a prominent house corner; the folk belief is that this can
serve as protection against evil spirits. Some people burn part of it to mix
with their folk medicine when they get sick.
One expects to hear chanting of the pasyon during the Mahal
na Araw. This tradition dates back more than 300 years ago when Don Gaspar
Aquino de Belen translated the Spanish passion of Christ by the Jesuit Fr.
Tomas de Villacastin. Through time, it
has been translated into the different dialects. Ilocanos, Pampangos and Tagalog have their
own melodies for the long passion narrative from the Last Supper up to when
Longinus was captured and killed after the resurrection of Christ, which soloists or groups take turn in chanting
during a typical pabasa. The aral
(lessons) that follow some narrative sections are also chanted. In recent years, young singers have been
adapting popular tunes as alternate to the traditional melodies.
The Longinus story is the basis of the Moriones folk
festival of Marinduque. He is the Roman centurion who pierced the side of the
crucified Christ with his lance, and who would come to believe and proclaim that
He is the son of God. In all the towns, masked
Morions roam around during the Holy Week in search of Longinus. As part of the tourism program of the
province, a town is selected each year
where his capture and beheading is enacted on Easter Sunday.
The pasyon is also basically the structural framework of
two other folk religious rituals: the sinakulo and the prusisyon.
The sinakulo is the theatrical presentation of the
passion, death and resurrection of Christ.
In Paete, Laguna, a local theatre group called The Centurion Original
has been mounting the sinakulo titled Martir sa Golgotha (Martyr of Golgotha)
since 1975 at the town plaza. The first part is staged on Maundy Thursday, and
second on Good Friday. I have seen the
first one comprising episodes from the annunciation on the coming of John the
Baptist and Jesus up to the Last Supper.
The rest of the passion up to the crucifixion is shown on Good Friday.
The prusisyon (processions) in the Roman Catholic Church
are held on Holy Wednesday and Good Friday.
There are many places in Luzon like San Pablo City that are famous for
their processions of antique images depicting characters and events in the
passion of Christ. These images are either mounted on decorated carrozas or
floats, or borne on the shoulders of devotees of particular images. In Paete,
Laguna, there are two dramatized features in the procession: the images of Mary and then of Veronica
meeting Jesus carrying the cross at certain stops along the way.
The focal point of the Good Friday procession is the Santo
Entierro (holy burial), usually a glass case containing the image of the dead
Christ. Of particular interest are the Santo
Señor Sepulcro of Lucban, Quezon, and the Senyor Sepulcro of Paete,
Laguna.
Lucban’s antique Christ image is said to be rich with
parcels of land and a bank account to its name, and its jewels taken out of the
bank vault for the Good Friday procession.
The first time I saw it, I was in awe of the thick antique golden
blanket covering the body.
Barefoot Lucban male devotees pull the carroza of the Santo
Señor. Their frenzy is similar to those
of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo on the first Saturday of January. The Santo Señor takes hours to get back to
the church as the menfolk seem to be engaged in a tug-of-war as they try getting
to the ropes tied in front and at the back of the carroza, thus slowing down
the procession.
Paete’s faithful treat their Senyor Sepulcro like the way northern tribes in
the Cordilleras did to the bodies of their dead centuries ago. The coincidences are rather strange: the seating and smoking rites of the dead and
the woodcarving tradition of the Paete people and the Cordillera tribes spin
some kind of ancient cultural thread between them.
Tradition has the antique Senyor image moved from its
niche in the Roman Catholic Church to the home of the caretakers on Holy
Wednesday morning. Said to be from
Mexico, it has a dark head and disjointed arms and limbs. The women wipe the image with a mixture of lambanog and herbs, and then have it
seated on an armchair inside a cubicle covered with several layers of bed sheets
for the smoking ritual until mid-afternoon.
After that, the image is laid in repose wearing a white gown and covered
with a beautifully embellished maroon shroud before the faithful can pay homage.
Like in Lucban, it’s also the menfolk who attend to the
Senyor. They carry the Santo Entierro on
their shoulders, swaying as they move forward in rhythmic cadence.
All processions are usually led by the image of St. Peter with the rooster and
key symbols. The last image is that of
the Mater Dolorosa or the grieving Mary, usually followed by the women.
In many towns, a different procession takes place in the
morning of Good Friday: flagellants and
penitents carrying crosses in fulfillment of certain vows even if the church
frowns on this folk religious practice.
Fr Pedro Chirino, SJ (1604) tells us how the early
converts in Leyte, Bohol and Cavite practiced their new religion with fervor
especially during the Holy Week. What stuns in his account is that even
the children practiced penitensiya. He wrote that the early
Pinoy Christians "were very careful in attending church and devout in
confessing, especially during that first Lent; and showed great fervor in
disciplining themselves, particularly during Holy Week; in the procession on
that occasion there were many who scourged themselves until the blood came, and
still others accompanied them, bearing four hundred lights, all preserving
great silence and order."
In Barangay Cutod in Pampanga, where the penitensiya
has gone to the extreme of crucifixion, there’s no silence and order but hoopla
time for both domestic and foreign tourists.
The
early bustle of Sabado de Gloria (Holy
Saturday) ensues when the church bells come alive again having been mute since
Maundy Thursday. Folk belief tells children
to start jumping once they hear the bells so that they can grow faster and
taller.
In
coastal towns, people start filling up the beaches before sunrise. When taking
a bath on Good Friday was still taboo, the cool morning waters could have felt
so heavenly. Many families and high school classes usually hold reunion picnics
on this last day of Lent.
The
biggest celebration comes early on Easter Sunday. Those who do not wake up early dawn surely
miss the rites of the salubong. The
intended drama is Mary meeting her son who has risen from the dead, with an
angel coming down from heaven to lift off her mourning veil, singing in great
jubilation with a chorus of other angels, ‘He has risen, as He Himself said …
alleluia!’
The
folk ritual calls for two processions coming from opposite directions, one with
the Mary image shrouded with a black veil, and the other with the Risen Christ
in white garments. In some towns, the
Mary procession is all-female, and the Christ procession is all-male.
In
our town, a young girl or a boy soprano is hoisted as an angel inside a
flower-like cover. She or he will lead
the children’s choir in cheering up Mary and strewing flower petals as the two images
meet. At one point, the big petals
spread out to reveal the angel being brought down to remove Mary’s black veil.
The
common folk find it ominous when the angel takes a long time in taking off the
veil, more so if it slips from her hold and falls down. Otherwise, there’s loud cheering at the end,
and the two images are brought inside the church for the Easter Sunday mass.
Yesterday,
today and tomorrow, the Pinoy commemorates the passion and death of Jesus
Christ in various folkways during the Holy Week: the artful palaspas, the marathon pabasa or pasyon,
the theatrical sinakulo and the Moriones, the penitensiya, and the prusisyon of
images; and his resurrection through the drama of the salubong on Easter Sunday.
Alongside
these folk rituals, what should matter though is that the Pinoy Christian deepens
his religious formation when he participates in the authentic commemoration of
the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, of the crucifixion and death on Good Friday,
of the Easter Vigil after sundown of Holy Saturday, and in the jubilant
celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.
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