Holy Week: Filipino Style

In the Catholic Calendar, the Holy Week is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter. It is held a week before and until, not including, Easter. It is a commemoration to the last week of Jesus Christ on earth as stated in the Bible. Certain countries, such as the Philippines, celebrate the Holy Week in different and sometimes, grotesque ways.

Philippines, known for being a Catholic country since its population is predominated by Catholics, kept the tradition of celebrating Holy Week as a time for them to repent and to reflect. This is also a time to develop one’s spirituality and to have an assessment of one’s life.

The Holy Week is started with Palm Sunday, a commemoration of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem. This is usually done by Catholics carrying palm leaves and having them blessed by a priest during a mass held especially for Palm Sunday. These palm leaves are known to ward off evil spirits during the Holy Week.

Penance, for the Filipinos, may be done in many ways. Fasting, Way of the Cross, Passion plays or Sinakulo, and reading or even chanting the Pasyon or the Passion of Christ are some of the prevalent ways to commemorate the Holy Week throughout the Philippines. In other provinces of the country (most rampant in San Fernando, Pampanga), the citizens choose to show their penance in not so ordinary ways. These would include: flagellating one’s self, carrying a cross, and by crucifixion. These ways are a penitent’s way of imparting with Jesus’ sufferings.

Fasting is the shunning of consumption of meat for religious purposes. It is because of the belief that if one refuses to eat meat for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, it can also be an equivalent for a Catholic to rapport with Jesus’ sufferings. Moreover, children of age 14 and below and the elderly may or may not participate in fasting. It is because children and the elderly need more proteins coming from meat as compared to an average-aged person.

Way of the Cross, also called as Stations of the Cross. It is a procession held by a group of people to depict the journey of Jesus Christ carrying His Cross. Specific locations are assigned as “stations” that indicate a certain scene in Jesus’ life. It is in these stations that the group will stop by and pray the rosary.

Sinakulo is a play held to act the sufferings of Jesus Christ and His last moments on earth.

The Singing of the Pasyon is the act of reading the Passion of Christ in a singsong manner. Just like the Way of the Cross and the Sinakulo, its purpose is to commemorate Jesus’ life on earth. However, Pasyon starts from Holy Monday to Black Saturday nonstop. In some areas of the Philippines, Pasyon is held in a small cottage or a small room where the penitents would enter and say their prayers and penance.

Visita Iglesia is also commonly done by the Filipinos during the Holy Week. Groups of people, usually families, visit different churches within the country. The number of churches to be visited during this practice is usually seven with two stations per church. Those who are more persevere, however, visit fourteen churches. These churches represent the fourteen Stations of the Cross.

In extreme ways, the Holy Week is celebrated by others in ways wherein they hurt themselves. It is for the reason that these physical pains would manifest their penance by experiencing what Jesus had gone through. Those ways include:

Self-flagellation. Penitents flagellate their backs and slap their wounds with their palaspas (usually a whip made out of bamboo sticks) to encourage the blood to ooze from their wounds. This is a common sight to the province of Pampanga. Foreigners, even Filipinos coming from other provinces, might have different reaction to this way of showing repentance.

Carrying a Cross. Yes, Holy Week is a time to carry our own crosses. But this act of repentance is taken literally by other penitents. They carry a cross, presumably the same size as that Jesus has carried, on their backs and walks with it. The crosses are usually made of wood. However, I had once encountered a cross carried by a penitent that is made of metal!

Lastly, Crucifixion. For most of us, this method may seem like is has gone way, way, way too far. I am a Filipino but I, for one, haven’t really gotten accustomed to this unusual sight. I haven’t actually seen a real person crucified because it just really scares me. As I have said, penitents are really crucified. In their opinion, it is their own way of expressing how they repent for their sins. Crucifixion have been considered an occasion in which tourists visit Pampanga to see this spectacle.

Note: These practices are also present in the celebration of Holy Week in other countries such as Ecuador, Malta, and other countries. This hub, however, focuses on the way the Philippines commemorate the said event.

To wrap it all up, Holy Week is about penance, appreciation, and being thankful. On a Catholic’s perspective, God gave up his only begotten Son to save the world from its sins. It is during the Holy Week that we commemorate this sacrifice. We may have our own views and opinions as to how we manifest our repentance. We may choose to do things that we know we can, or do things against our limits to achieve fulfillment in repentance. However, we must keep in mind that the method towards repentance is not as important as the reason why we are doing it.

It is of great importance that what we put our hearts in things that we do. Doings of the mind and not of the heart are considered useless since these are merely of logical reasons rather than that of sincere emotions.