Holy Week's Culture Shock

This past week we observed Holy Week (Semana Santa) in the Philippines. From Monday to Good Friday, many of the Filipinos engage in a series of religious ceremonies as they observe Christian and pagan rituals by reciting and reenacting the passion and death of Christ from written verse to dramatized versions of His sacrifice. During this time, many people visit their chapels to recite prayers before altars while more fanatic ones beat themselves.

Sights and Sounds
At the beginning of Holy Week, we heard people singing in the nearby Catholic chapels. Our friend informed us that they sung the story of Christ, from His birth up to His death. If you imagine someone wailing or painfully singing over a distant microphone or karaoke speaker, you can capture the sounds that we heard throughout Holy Week. ;-) We just heard their singing pretty much the entire week before Easter.

Before Holy Week began, some of our friends warned us about people literally beating and nailing themselves to crosses around our city. Tourists and those from other provinces even come out just to watch these gruesome acts!
We were not too thrilled to see these beatings and crucifixions. But since we are living in another country, we decided that we should document this unique—yet somewhat disturbing—culture experience. So, out came the camera.;-)

As we drove down the streets of Angeles on Good Friday, these individuals (called flagellants) were beating themselves with sharp tipped whips. With many of their faces covered with material, they solemnly walked barefoot and shirtless down the streets. Each stride timely matched their self-inflicted strike on their raw backs. Several of the flagellants even wore crowns of thorns on their heads.

“Clicket… clicket… clicket.” The sounds of their jagged whips broke the silence as onlookers nearby stopped to watch the hushed line of men pass. Eventually the blood on many of these flagellants’ backs took on the form a rough heart after continual whipping. Many people captured the scene by taking pictures with their cell phones and cameras, while others casually looked on as if it were an everyday occurrence.

We have heard different reports from our local friends and are puzzled. Are they really beating themselves? Or is part of it staged? We wonder because some people tell us that the individual’s blood is not his own but actually pigs’ blood. Yet, others tell us that this is all completely real. Some of the flagellants’ blood that we saw almost looked fake, although there are many out there who truly do beat themselves gruesomely.



There were also a few who treaded down the streets carrying crosses on their backs. They too had their faces covered as they walked barefoot and shirtless down the scorching pavement to their crucifixion. These people even live through this! Thankfully we did not see any of these so-called crucifixions. Our stomachs were not up to it.

(If you care to see anymore pictures from Holy Week, click on "Our Family Photos" in the upper right hand corner)

The why behind it all
If you are like us, you are probably asking, “Why in the world do they do this? What is their motive for flogging themselves bloody and crucifying themselves during Holy Week?” Although some people do it for tradition, many of them simply believe that they can make atonement for their sins by beating and crucifying themselves.

Our hope in Christ
It was rather solemn (and even disturbing!) to observe these aspects of Holy Week over here in the Philippines. So many people are unaware of the truth of the Gospel and believe that these empty rituals and actions will save them.

As we observed many Catholic ceremonial rites over Holy Week, we began to appreciate the importance of Easter even more. We do not have to perform any actions or rituals to save ourselves because Christ has already died in our place and has risen from the grave. He offers us salvation, new life, and hope for the future!

“But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Titus 3:4-7