There is something more to the relinquishment you and your family will get from April 10, 2022 to April 16, 2022. So before you and your loved ones venture out of your Crown Asia house and lot for sale travel to church to church for your yearly Visita Iglesia on the holy days or Lenten season, or explore different beaches of our exquisite and scenic country to unwind and really get that vacation you totally deserve, read this article to know exactly what you are celebrating. Everything in life happens for a reason and it definitely does not hurt to know more about this Philippine Catholic holiday.
Holy Week Begins with Palm Sunday then various Holy Week Observances happen, this is a part of being Filipino
Holy Week is a holy event of the Catholic church that is taken to the heart and culture of religious Filipinos. And that is quite the handful for 80.58% of the total Filipino population are Catholics which most likely includes you and your family. The weeklong holiday is composed of Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday, and Easter Sunday. In the Philippines, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are regular national holidays. Fortunately, this year’s holy week will be a set of rejoicing since the National Central Region (NCR) and several other provinces if not the whole Philippines would be able to celebrate Holy Week just like the good old days before the pandemic since COVID-19 cases are become less and less by the day: tangible, live, and in front of you. Definitely not the usual online setup you and your family have been dying to get over with. So we’re here to remind you of the precious Filipino traditions that you and your dear family could redo this 2022. Here are some of them:
Feel the passion of Jesus Christ with Senakulo
The passion and dedication of Filipinos to their religious beliefs are evident and overdone through this Filipino Holy Week tradition: Senakulo.
Done during several nights on Holy Week is senakulo, or Passion Play, a stage or street play about the life of Jesus leading to his the day Jesus died. The play takes place in many, if not all Filipino communities and is usually organized by local governments with sponsors and volunteers. And by volunteers, we really mean volunteers because you definitely know what is up: it indeed gets bloody here. Tell me, how many people would volunteer to get nails hammered through their hands? Hundreds of Filipinos, apparently, since this has been a long practice since the colonization of Spain in 1521. The bloodiest reenactment of the passion of Christ and the most popular is the senakulo in San Pedro Catud, San Fernando, Pampanga. Perhaps you and your family could pay a visit from your house and lot for sale to this place if you are looking for a memorable experience.
Do you remember? Rehear the Siete Palabras
To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
The annual siete palabras or the reading of Jesus Christ’s seven last words is a tradition followed during a mass or in dialogues over the radio or television. It is seen by many as a way to reflect on his last brief sayings during the Holy Week. The most well-known among them are “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” and the ultimatum: They have been widely used in sermons on Good Friday since the 16th century.
The Filipinos are exceptional through the Penitensya
Another evidence of the Filipinos’ hardcore love and dedication to Christ is the Penitensya. Penance or penitensya is the Filipino practice of self-discipline that is often considered a spiritual act. It’s usually depicted as something that’s severe and done in public. Do not confuse this with Senakulo since this is definitely more than an act: men and women seeking forgiveness would use leather straps to hit themselves in the back, carry a cross through seven churches, or lie down on the scorching concrete pavement. Some would go further and get crucified on a cross.
Salubong God’s many blessings with the Salubong on Easter Sunday
Rejoice, friends! Christ has risen! And you better welcome Him back.
Done before dawn, the salubong (welcome) is a ritual celebration of the Risen Christ or the Jesus resurrection. Young women lead a procession of two statues, Mary in a black veil and the Risen Christ, towards the nearby church. Eventually, they reach the stage usually in front of a church where a mechanism carrying a young girl dressed in white. She is lowered down to take off the black veil in Mary’s statue depicting the Resurrection of Jesus and the end of Mary’s sorrow.
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Experience the ultimate Filipino family-friendly Holy Week tradition: Visita Iglesia
Of course, we would not forget about Visita Iglesia! Buckle up, friends, for it’s time for a road trip! Except, maybe cut off the blasting of Bohemian Rhapsody, Beer, and other road trips tunes this Holy Week. But you can totally have a solemn prayer vibing session by playing Christian songs!
The general practice is to visit seven churches either on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday and recite the Stations of the Cross. Numerous Filipino families make it a point to not visit churches that are close to one another, but to actually venture out to churches far stretched from one another! Feel free to travel from Santa Rosa, Laguna’s Santa Rosa de Lima Church, which is just a stretch away from your Crown Asia home, all to way to Bulacan where you and your family could have fun but indeed tedious penance by climbing the steep path to reach the top of Padre Pio’s Mountain of Healing.
Initially, the purpose of this Holy Week practice was to honor the Blessed Sacrament. It then morphed into a form of pilgrimage and meditation for the Holy Week, and also a form of seeking penance for sins. Superstition even has it that wishes would be granted upon completion of a Visita Iglesia.
If there is one thing that we can get from Holy Week, that it is not only a weeklong religious activity that you and your family must take part in for the sake of your beliefs, but it is also a great opportunity for you and your family to bond and be reminded of the love you have for each other which is just as much as Jesus’ love for us.
