Holy Week

Last Monday, a day after the Palm Sunday is the start of the Holy week a celebration that every Christians all over the globe is celebrating this holy feast. Holy week is a very significant religious festival for all Christians especially in the Philippines which  is  one of the largest Christian country in the world. Holy Week in the Philippines is known as Semana Santa (Spanish name) or it's the Filipino name Mahal na Araw. When I was young I remember that during the holy week is one of the boring days that we had as there will be no television programming available because many of local television and radio station was interrupted their broadcast or was replaced a regular programming with more solemn or religious content out of respect for this celebration.

Also during this feast we see others doing the traditional "Pasyon" this are narrative of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is woven into an epic poetry standard elements colorful dramatic theme with stanzas of five lines with each line having eight syllables and people will sing solemnly every stanza while reflecting Jesus story of birth, ministry, death and resurrection.  The Pasyon will be marathon chanting in a little makeshift chapels and devout singers are mostly comprised of old ladies who take their turns in singing hymns from the pages of the  bible.

On Maundy Thursday many of the Filipino begin this day with the faithful observance of "Visita Iglesia" meaning church visit. This observance usually involves going to either one, seven, or fourteen different churches to pray the Via Crucis this is also called Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows refer to the depiction of the final hour of Jesus. The different churches were being visited by may people in procession on foot. I was able to attend in this kind of pratice as we have walk starting the church of San Roque at blumentrit, Manila until the it's 14 church at San Jose de Trozo Parish in Masangkayu, Manila.

Here are the 14 Churches we visited during the Visita Iglesia procession

San Roque de Manila Parish Church, Blumentritt, Manila

Espiritu Santo Parish Chruch, Tayuman, Manila

 Santisimo Rosario Parish Church, UST, Manila

St. Anthony de Padua Shrine, Sampaloc, Manila

Our Lady of Loreto Shrine, Sampaloc, Manila

Minor Basilica of San Sebastian, Quiapo, Manila

The Abbey Church, Mendiola, Manila

San Miguel de Manila Parish Church, Malacañan, Manila

Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, Quiapo, Manila

Sta. Cruz Parish Church, Sta. Cruz, Manila

San Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila

Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Concepcion, Intramuros, Manila

Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz, Binondo, Manila

San Jose de Trozo Parish Church, Masangkay, Manila

On Good Friday or simply we called Biyernes Santo is considered a public holiday. During this day me and mother went to the church and have our confession then after that we do the way of the cross. also on good Friday we commemorate the seven Last words of Jesus or the Siete Palabras. Furthermore, the other part of the country do Senákulo or traditional Passion play. This is a processions that include many of the devotees who self-flagellate and sometimes even have themselves nailed to crosses as expressions of penance while other would walk half-naked in the street as they struck their backs with small branches of trees for hours till blood would cover their body.

Holy Saturday known locally as "Black Saturday" or Sabado de Gloria is a time of silence and solemnity as well as reflecting on the Holy feast that we all celebrating. In this time as well many of the churches and its parishioner preparing the Easter Vigil.

Come Sunday, The Easter or what we called "Pasko or Lingo nang Pagkabuhay" The first dawn of Sunday will marked with jubilant celebration as many Filipino will joined the long procession of the images of the Resurrected Christ and the Virgin Mary and will be meeting up at the designated area called a "Galilea", It plays out the imagined reunion of Jesus and his mother Mary after the Resurrection until to the last stop which will at the church and together will hear a mass. this observance is what we called the "Salubong" This are the practices the most of the Filipino people are doing during the time. this holy feast is one of the most celebrated feast in the Philippines as we have ways that make this feast more colorful significant to our religious belief and that show our strong faith to God. No matter what kind of ways we do to participate in this celebration, we should never forget the essence of why we having this celebration, that is to remember God's love to us that he gave up his only begotten son to save us from sin and that Jesus Christ sacrifice on the cross is strong symbol of God's unconditional love and that we used this day to reflect on all our shortcoming and that we started a new day of searching God's purpose to us.