MY SARISARI STORE

Away...

I am now on my way to the Kalinga and Ifugao Provinces. I will be back early May with a new photo series about the Holy Week.

I hope to see you back in a few weeks!

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in the Philippines.

Since 2002 I am trying to document the different Lenten traditions in the Philippines. I take this opportunity to thank all the friendly and hospitable people I have met during my travels. I thank all the people who allowed me to cover their customs, beliefs and traditions. All the people who allowed me inside their homes, offered me free food and drinks. Truly Filipino hospitality at its best! Maraming salamat po.

Boling-Boling is an old age practice particular to Catanauanins, which is celebrated annually starting on the Sunday and ends on Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday and signals the start of the Lenten Season. Participants roam around the town garbed in any costume they may fancy. Most of them wear colourful clown-like clothes while others imitate anybody whom they despise and make fun of them. It is the Pinoy version of carnival (click here)

In the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days (forty days not counting Sundays) before Easter. It falls on a different date each year, because it is dependent on the date of Easter; it can occur as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance. The ashes used are gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned (click here.)

Palm Sunday is a Christian movable feast which always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates an event mentioned by all four Canonical Gospels Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19: the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his Passion. Click here for the palaspas making and here for Palm Sunday in Sta. Isabel, Malolos. Palm Sunday in Tondo here and Paete (click here)*.

The Sinakulo or A Passion play depicting the Passion of Christ: the trial, suffering and death of Jesus Christ. In Makati here and in Marinduque (click here).

The Moriones Festival is known widely as one of the most colorful festivals celebrated on the island of Marinduque. Morion means "mask" or "visor," a part of the medieval Roman armor which covers the face. Moriones, on the other hand, refers to the masked and costumed penitents who march around the town for seven days searching for Longinus. Morions roam the streets in town from Holy Monday to Easter Sunday scaring the kids, or engaging in antics or surprises to draw attention. This is a folk-religious festival that re-enacts the story of Longinus, a Roman centurion who was blind in one eye. The festival is characterized by colorful Roman costumes, painted masks and helmets, and brightly-colored tunics. The towns of Boac, Gasan, Santa Cruz, Buenavista and Mogpog in the island of Marinduque become one gigantic stage (click here).

The gathering of sorcerers and healers in the village of San Antonio, Siquior. Preparation of healing material during Holy Friday and Black Saturday.
The healers begin collecting the herbs, roots, plants and sea plants that go into their potions each Friday after Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Good Friday. On Good Friday they will have gathered everything they need to make their potions and nothing will be collected again until Ash Wednesday the following year. All those plants will then be cut into small pieces by different sorcerers. The chopped herbal will be put in bottles and mixed together with coconut oil or with Tanduay (brand of rhum). The cutting and brewing of those herbal and magic potions will only be done on Black Saturday. Believing that with the Christ dead, other unknown forces can put healing powers in the herbal medicine. Sorcerers and healers from all over the Philippines travel to Siquijor to buy those special herbs. I met different people from Manila, Cebu and Mindanao who traveled to Siquijor just to refill their stock of herbal potions (click here).

The change of clothing of Mater Dolorosa in the town of Paete (click here).

The pagpaligo ng Mahal na Senor ( the statue of the Death Christ is washed with a mixture of Lambanog and Agua de Cologne) and the sinusuob (the statue of the Death Christ is smoked) in Paete (click here)

The pabasa is a uniquely Filipino tradition of chanting or singing the pasyon, a book narrating the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many of its practitioners do it as a personal vow or panata during Holy Week. The pabasa is done by a group of people in a specially appointed place in the middle of the neighborhood. The chanting or singing lasts overnight usually from the afternoon of Holy Thursday until the morning of Good Friday (click here).

 

 

The washing of the feet (click here), the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament (click here), the Last Supper (click here) and the Cordero a food procession featuring the Lamb of God in Morong (click here).

Walking all night long from Quiapo Church to Antipolo or from Angono to Antipolo on the night of Maudy Thursday as a personal form of penitensiya (click here).

 

Good Friday’s flagellants in Cutud (click here), in Gasan, Marinduque (click here) in Paombong (click here)* and in Kalayaan (click here).

The tinggulong in Kalayaan (click here).

 

 

Crucifixions in Cutud (click here) and in Kapitangan (click here).

 

Salubong is an Easter Sunday pre-dawn ritual that reenacts the Risen Christ's meeting with His mother. It is performed in the churchyard under a specially prepared arch where the veiled image of the Virgin Mary has been placed. A child dressed as an angel is lowered by ropes from a high platform to lift the mourning veil of the grieving Mother.In Angono (click here) and in Boac, Marinduque (click here).

Cubao Nights

Cubao Nights

Cubao Nights

Cubao Nights

Cubao Nights

Cubao Nights

Cubao Nights

 

Cubao Nights