'Dungaw' - Mary looks at the Nazarene from the San Sebastian balcony

The Nuestra Senora del Carmen in her niche at the altar (left), before she was brought up to the balcony (top right),
and as she looked out to see the Nazareno, the 'dungaw' (below right).

In a story I wrote for the weekly FilAm Star of San Francisco, CA on 21 January 2014, I mentioned that the 'dungaw' tradition of the Recollects revived during the 'traslacion' of the Itim na Nazareno that year.

For the first time, the Basilica opened its doors this year to the public to view the 'dungaw' from the bell towers and balconies. It used to be exclusive for the media.

My Dungaw pass to the balcony of the Basilica.

In a way, the 'dungaw' was invitational. We failed to register online for slots in the viewing areas but we hoped for a chance when we went to the office of the San Sebastian Basilica Conservation and Development Foundation on 'traslacion' day. Thanks to the graciousness of the the project officers, we were able to join the 'exclusive' viewing group.

The Nazarene procession from the Quirino grandstand to Quiapo church took 22 hours this year with thousands of barefoot devotees, male and female, jostling their way to hold on to the rope for pulling the carroza of the venerated image, or to clamber onto the andas to touch the image or the cross.

Taken from the balcony as the 'traslacion' passes by on its way to Quiapo church.

The frenzy of the devotees was tempered briefly when the Nazareno, coming from Hidalgo St., paused at the Plaza del Carmen. The image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Nuestra Senora del Carmen) came out to the balcony of the San Sebastian Basilica to 'look' at her son. Prayers were said, and the anthems to the Lady and the Nazareno were sang, the devotees singing along and waving their white towelettes.

This is the 'dungaw' (Filipino for looking out), a representative image of Mary's encounter with her son Jesus on his way to Calvary, one of the stations of the cross of the Roman Catholics.

Both images are around 400 years old, both of Mexican origin, that the Recoletos brought to the Philippines. The firs mission of the order comprising 14 religious arrived in Manila in 1606. It is said that the Nazareno came also that year,

The Catalogo de los Religiosos Agustinos Recoletos (Sadaba, 1906) tells us that the image of the Nuestra Senora del Carmen arrived with Mission III comprising five Recoleto fathers in 1618. Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel brought it from Mexico.

Fray San Miguel was with the first mission. He exercised his sacred ministry in Bataan and Zambales, which established missions in Mariveles, Subic and Masinloc.

He went back to Spain in July 1614 and sailed back in July 1617 as Commissar and President of the third mission, arriving in Manila in 1618. He held the post of Vicar Provincial of the order until 1622.

In 1621, he founded the convent of San Sebastian outside Manila where the image of the Nuestra Senora del Carmen that he brought from Mexico was enshrined for veneration. Fray Rodrigo also founded the ministries of Cebu and of Caraga in Mindanao.

The Recoletos are celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of the Nuestra Senora del Carmen this year. Events are expected to be announced soon.


Reference:

• Available from Google Books: Francisco Sadaba del Carmen. 1906. Catalogo del los Religiosos Agustinos Recoletos de la Provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Filipinas. Madtid: Imprenta del Asilo de Huerfanos del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus.

Amid the multitude of devotees during the fiesta of the Nazareno 2014

Note:  A slightly different version of this photo essay was published in the 17-23 Jan 2014 issue of the weekly FilAm Star ("The newspaper for Filipinos in mainstream America") with the title "Amid the legions of devotees during the fiesta of Nazareno."  The blogger is the Special Photo/News Correspondent of the said weekly, which is based in San Francisco, CA.

The scramble to the top of the andas.

The feast of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo is not a moveable feast. The 9th of January is a special day that many devotees fix their minds and hearts on even before fireworks lit up the sky on New Year’s Eve. That’s because the nine-day novena masses for the revered Poong Hesus Nazareno begin right on the 31st of December.

The Hijos de Nazareno guarding the Nazareno.

The subject of intense devotion is the wooden life-size sculpture of Jesus Christ carrying a cross that Augustinian friars brought to Manila from Mexico in 1607.  According to popular lore, it got its dark color after getting partly burned when the galleon carrying it caught fire.

This is the third year that I followed the translacion (procession) at day time. I never got to see the completion of the journey from the Quirino Grandstand to the Basilica Minore of Quiapo at long past midnight. I learned that the Nazareno got back to the shrine past one o’clock Friday morning, and that was faster than last year’s 22 hours.

I did not also witness the revival of the dungaw (Tagalog term for looking at) tradition at the Plaza del Carmen by the Basilica Minore of San Sebastian, which used to be part of the translacion until the early 1900s .  The Recollect priests brought out the image of Our Lady of Carmel, which was also from Mexico and as old as the Nazarene, to re-enact the meeting of Mary and her son on his way to his crucifixion.  This is one reason why the procession route was longer this year.

The Nazareno and thousands of devotees crossing the Jones Bridge

The other reason was that the Nazareno had to cross the Pasig River via the Jones Bridge since the customary McArthur Bridge had been found to be structurally unsafe for carrying a huge crowd, the last estimate being around 3 million.  In fact, Coast Guard emergency units were on the alert and deployed below the bridge as the image and the multitude of devotees passed through.

I was immersed in the thick of mostly barefoot male and female devotees at several points on the Taft Avenue to Jones Bridge leg of the procession. They were either resting before they get back again into the frenzy of grabbing the thick manila rope that pulls the andas (carriage), or of climbing onto the carriage so that they can touch the image. I was amazed at the audacity of young women in jeans who attempted the climb that’s dominated by male devotees.  From my perch on the barrier at the foot of the Jones on the Escolta side, I saw one girl getting stepped on by a male climber as she lost her grip and slid down. I saw her next on a stretcher being carried to the first-aid station located below my perch.

The ones on top of the carriage are called Hijos de Nazareno (sons of the Nazarene) wearing yellow shirts whose duty it is to protect the image during the procession.  Devotees toss to them their hand towels to be wiped on the image, but sometimes they do not get these back.  One brother who shared my perch on Jones Bridge was telling me he has lost three towels already.  It is best, he said, if the hijo saw you throw the towel so he’d know where to fling it back.  Other hijos are deployed around the carriage.  Aside from providing further security to the image, they also offer their shoulders to step on for those who want to climb and touch the Nazareno.

Rope bearers or namamasan.

On this day, the devotees call everyone kapatid (brother or sister).  They’re not only helpful to one another but to spectators like me as well. A kapatid who helps pull the rope is called a namamasan. When this brother raises his hand, this means he already needs help, and non-pullers take him away from the dense frenzied wave of rope bearers..

During this year’s commemoration, zealous devotion went beyond the customary expressions of walking barefoot, waving white towels while shouting ‘Viva, Nazareno’, jostling to get to the ropes, and striving by all means to touch the image on the carriage.

Before Cardinal Antonio Tagle finished celebrating the early morning Mass at the Luneta, overzealous devotees broke through the barricades, climbed the stage, and seized the image to mount on the carriage so that the procession can begin.  The clergy could not do anything to stop the mob. The Cardinal had to finish the Mass at the backstage.  That extreme behavior again raised the issues of idolatry, fanaticism, superstition, and the apparent lack of authentic religious formation among many of the Nazareno devotees. 

Other devotos.

I was at the evening mass at the Quirino Grandstand the night before, the eve of the fiesta, also celebrated by the Cardinal.  The crowd of devotees encamped around the Luneta paid solemn attention to the rites, and observed decorum when communion and the anointment with holy oil were administered through the wire fence.  The long line of devotees that snaked several times from the area across the Rizal monument to the back of the grandstand where they can kiss the foot of the Nazareno was very orderly. 

There are of course many others who went to the Basilica Minore in Quiapo, the vigil at the Luneta and during the translacion and celebrated the feast of the Nazarene in their own somber acts of thanksgiving for miracles brought into their lives, and of unwavering faith that he will answer their prayers for themselves or their loved ones. 

This reminds that the translacion of the old days were solemn rites.  Through his painting of the procession of 1847, Jose Honorato Lozano tells us that the crowd at the Quiapo church square (now the Plaza Miranda) was big but orderly.  Even then the Black Nazarene was mounted on the andas with the clergy following the carriage under a canopy, and a brass band provided the processional music.

His painting tells us that the women in the procession wore black mantles or veils and carried lighted candles.  Lozano does not say how the men dress up for this fiesta but he says that generally the men wear their shirts over their trousers.   The painting suggests the men pulled the ropes, or they carried the andas on their shoulders.

While I saw several devotees with lighted candles during this year’s procession, the women did not have black mantles or veils anymore, and most, just like the male devotees, were  barefoot, and wore pants or shorts and t-shirts of yellow or maroon, colors associated with the Poong Hesus Nazareno of Quiapo. 

In the old days: no permits, no Holy Week processions in Manila!

Holy Week procession in Intramuros in the early 1900s.  (Photo Source: SouthEast Asian Images and Texts of the University of  Wisconsin Digital Collections at http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/SEAiT)

It's Holy Week, and in most towns in Luzon, antique and newly commissioned images depicting Christ during his passion, death and resurrection are mounted on beautiful pasos or carrozas for the Holy Wednesday [Maundy Thursday in our childhood memories] and Good Friday processions.  Other major characters in the passion story also have their own decorated floats: the San Pedro at the head of the procession and the sorrowful Santa Maria at the end following the focal Christ Nazareno image of Wednesday and the Santo Entierro of Viernes Santo, among others.

In some places, the first procession comes on Viernes de Dolores (Friday of Sorrows), the last Friday of Lent, and that's before Palm Sunday, even if Vatican II has moved this feast day to September 15.  The focus is on Santa Maria's seven sorrows.  In Pakil, Laguna, the turumba is the highlight of the Dolores rites of seven Fridays spread out between this Viernes and September, and this has become a tourist attraction.

When we were young, there used to be a procession on Holy Monday, which our elders called Stacion General. That's now history.

Processions have become customary not only during the Holy Week but also during the feast days of patron saints in Philippine villages, towns and cities.  Owners or caretakers of religious images take it a dutiful obligation to bring them out for the annual public veneration, sometimes frenzied, of the faithful.  Some processions have unique features that they have become tourist delights

But there was a time during the late Spanish regime up to the early American period that no processions could be held in the suburbs of the walled city of Manila unless the parish priests secure a licensia (authorization) from the Archbishop.   

When Fr Bernardino Nozaleda, OP, was Archbishop, he issued the 'no permit, no procession' circular on 24 March 1893.  Henceforth, permits had to be requested for any procession to be held in the parishes including the Flores de Mayo.  The permit would contain a reminder of the three conditions in the circular:  first, that the procession should not last two and a half hours [it must be back in church within that span of time];  second, that the priest does not allow attendance in ridiculous masquerades [comparsas ridiculas]; and third, that every image must be accompanied by a number of light providers [alumbrantes].

We're quite perplexed with comparsas ridiculas, which reminds us of grotesque costumes in the theatre. It could have been referring to costumed presentations during festival days.  The only theatrical event during the Holy Week was/is the senakulo, but this one could not have been ridicula because it is a dramatic rendition of the passion of Christ.

We saw copy of permits issued to the parishes of the arrabales [suburbs] of the walled city among the Decretos of Archbishops Nozaleda and Jeremias Harty for the period 1893-1905.  From these we got to know when these suburbs held their Holy Week processions:

• Binondo. Viernes de Dolores, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday (Domingo de Pascua de Resurreccion).
• Hermita [Ermita].  Palm Sunday, Holy Monday and Good Friday. 
• Sampaloc.  Holy Wednesday, and Good Friday afternoon for the Santo Entierro. 
• Quiapo.  Holy Monday, Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday 
• Sta Cruz.  Holy Wednesday and Good Friday for the Santo Entierro
• San Fernando de Dilao.  Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
• Tondo. Holy Tuesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday 
• Malate.  Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday
• Cainta.  Good Friday.
• San Miguel.  Good Friday.
• Santa Ana.  Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Religious practices have indeed changed because of liturgical reforms.  These days, one expects at least one procession during the Holy Week: the grandest one of the Santo Entierro in most towns on Good Friday. 

The Pieta of the San Agustin Church, Intramuros mounted on a gilded paso. Photo2013 by the author.

References:

• Book 1.B.6. Folder 4. Decretos (Nozaleda, Libro de Gobierno Ecclesiastico). 1893-1895.  Archdiocesan Archives (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila).

• Book 1.B.6. Folder 5. Decretos (Libro de Gobierno Ecclesiastico)1902.-1905.  Archdiocesan Archives (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila).

Quiapo fiesta of the Santo Jesus (Black Nazarene) in the 1800s

Dibujo [DIB158412] of the Quiapo Church from the album of paintings titled Vistas de las islas Filipinas y trages (sic) de sus abitantes (sic) by Jose Honorato Lozano in 1847. [Source:  Biblioteca Nacional de Espana]

Let us imagine ourselves on the tile roof of a gentry house east of the Quiapo church in 1847, probably in the vicinity of the Muslim mosque today, just like what Filipino painter Jose Honorato Lozano did when he painted the Yglesia parroquial de Quiapo (above). 

We are also looking at the solemn traslacion of the Santo Jesus (the Black Nazarene in our language today), the image mounted on an andas, as it is about to enter the church.  There's a big but orderly crowd in the church square -- now called Plaza Miranda -- watching the procession in celebration of the feast day of the patron saint of Quiapo.  The clergy follow the image under a canopy (we don't see this anymore except during the procession of the Holy Sacrament on Maundy Thursday), and a brass band provides the religious music for this rite. 

Lozano tells us that the women who devoutly join the procession wear a lambong or a black mantle and carry lighted candles.  He doesn't say how the men dress up for the Quiapo fiesta although he informs that generally in every town fiesta or Pintacasi that usually lasts three days, the men wear their shirts over their trousers. He adds that everyone like musicians, cantors and altar boys, and those involved in church functions wear their reverent best during the occasion.  By the way, the painter says that aside from music and other festivities, the cockpits are open.  Today, we can't imagine the menfolk engrossed in cockfighting during the Quiapo event.

The original Itim na Nazareno (Black Nazarene) encased in glass, which we were able to photographed with permission from the church authorities.  It gets exposed only during the traslacion on 09 January.

Today, the procession started after the 6 o'clock morning mass from the Quirino grandstand.  With the reported initial crowd of half-a-million devotees, dominantly barefoot, yellow or maroon-shirted male, trying to get a hold of the rope tied to the andas, or mount it to touch the image, the procession probably would finally get inside the Quiapo church around midnight, just like last year.

Women carry the andas during the procession of Nazarene replicas on 07 Jan, 2013.

The women don't wear lambongs anymore; they wear pants or shorts and the yellow or maroon t-shirts. Nor do they carry lighted candles.  They now dare to get to the ropes or to climb over the heads of the male devotees to get on to the andas briefly and touch the image.

There are several replicas of the Black Nazarene around the Quiapo church for devotees.  One is the centerpiece of the altar, and there is an entry door on the Quiapo Blvd. side for those who want to kiss a foot of the image (the pahalik) behind the altar.  The exit leads to the room where the original Black Nazarene can be seen through a glass enclosure, and it can't be touched or kissed.  Hence, the frenzy that attends the traslacion today as the original gets exposed for adoration!

Reference:

Lozano, Jose Honorato.  (1847).  Vistas de las islas Filipinas y trages (sic) de sus abitantes (sic).  Retrieved from the Biblioteca Digital Hispanica of the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana at

http://bibliotecadigitalhispanica.bne.es:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=3808315&custom_att_2=simple_viewer