LENT prepares the Christian for the yearly commemoration of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. Forty weekdays – hence the term ‘Cuaresma’ in Spanish, are given over to prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and abstinence from meat. Christ’s forty-day retreat in the desert and His success in resisting the devil’s temptation to wealth, power, and glory inspires the Christian who reads the Sacred Scriptures or is familiar with the Bible.
Historically, however, Catholic Church authorities did not give the faithful direct access to the Scriptures. It was rather “mediated” – through homilies, catechisms, icons, folklores, etc., giving rise to various vibrant, religious practices which are not always scripturally founded and are different from the official Church liturgy that is celebrated at Mass.
First is the Church’s paraliturgy: public rituals such as processions. Second is popular liturgy developed by the laity themselves, sometimes approved by the clergy, at other times, only tolerated. Examples are the chanting of the Pasyon or the flagellations.
The Pasyon chanting tradition is seen by many of its practitioners as a vow made by an individual or family, passed on from one to two generations back. Third are the non-official practices that have nothing to do with the liturgy like the procurement of amulets or anting-anting on Good Friday. Finally, there are religious arts – drama, passion plays and decorations.
“Holy Week” or Semana Santa in the Philippines is ushered in by Palm Sunday with a widely- practiced ritual – parishioners wave palm fronds, locally called palaspas (palm fronds) in the air, mimicking the crowd that met Christ upon his return to Jerusalem. Once blessed by a priest, the palms are considered sacramental and are saved to be burned the following year as the source of ashes used in Ash Wednesday services.
Holy Thursday features the Chrism Mass in the morning and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, in the late afternoon where the priest washes the feet of twelve men representing the apostles. The mass concludes with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
In some towns in Pampanga and Rizal, people hold the cordero ritual. A “lamb” is made out of mashed potatoes and kamote which is brought in festive procession to the church to be blessed and returned to the house of the hermano where it is shared by twelve men garbed as apostles. The townsfolk who accompanied the procession partake of the food prepared by the hermano.
Good Friday centers on the Lord’s Passion and death on the cross, with the preaching of the Seven Last Words, broadcast by radio and television. Good Friday abounds in rituals of folk religiosity. In some places like Cavite and Laguna, folks go barefoot while doing the way of the cross. They also join the funeral procession of the Santo Entierro or the Dead Christ lying in state.
Old families take out their santos (prized religious icons of wood and ivory) and mount them on floats lit by lamps and decorated with flowers. The last image of the procession is the Mater Dolorosa, the grieving Mary garbed in elegant mourning black.
The unique Holy Week rites of Puncan, one of the oldest towns in Nueva Ecija, are woven in folklore. Aside from the differing dialect, Pangasinense, widely used in Puncan, its distinct Lenten rituals include a hide-and-seek routine between the “Flagellante” and “Hudyo,” a chidren’s parade, and a choreographed version of Christian penitential rites in which participants with charcoal-smeared faces beat bamboos.
Religious piety is passionately displayed in different parts of the Philippines, particularly in the provinces where communities go on pilgrimage to as many churches and devotees re-enacting Christ’s ordeal through real-life crucifixion under the scorching heat of the sun.
Extreme forms of religious practices such as self-flagellation using whips tipped with sharp objects that scar the backs of hooded penitents are some of the rituals that are performed to this day. The penitents are taken down seconds after being nailed to the wooden crosses using 2-inch stainless steel nails soaked in alcohol. These crucifixions which usually take place in the town of San Pedro, Pampanga are not approved by the Catholic Church.
With the passing of time, the fine line that separates religious ritual from spectacle is slowly erased as hundreds of tourists troop to this quaint town to witness the tradition in awe and amazement. Such rituals are part of a folk religious culture that has deep roots in a brand of obscurantism that dates back to the Spanish colonial period. Hispanic Filipinos likened the suffering of Christ to their oppression in the hands of their abusive Spanish landlords and friars.
But for some modern day Filipinos, Holy Week is an opportunity to escape from the hustle and bustle of urban living to the serene beaches and picturesque landscapes spread across the archipelago. It is also a respite from the snarl of Manila’s traffic jams.
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Prof. Soriano is the Turnaround and Family Advisor of wongadvisory.com and the Chairman of the Marketing Cluster at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. For comments please email writer at [email protected].