By AFP
A Philippine Christian devotee is nailed to a cross during a reenactment of the Crucifixion of Christ during Good Friday ahead of Easter in San Juan, Pampanga, on April 19, 2019
A man was nailed to a cross with up to 10 more to follow while barefoot men beat themselves with flails on Good Friday, in a blood-soaked display of religious fervour in the Philippines.
Frowned upon by the Church, the ritual crucifixions and self-flagellation in
the north of the country are extreme affirmations of faith performed every
Easter in Asia’s Catholic outpost.
Wilfredo Salvador stared at the sky and appeared to mumble a prayer after the
slight 62-year-old with wild grey hair and a long beard became the first local
zealot this year to hang from a wooden cross.
“I will not stop this for as long as I am alive, because this is what
gives me life,” said Salvador, a fisherman who has been volunteering to be
crucified for 14 straight years since recovering from a nervous breakdown.
Assistants costumed as Roman centurions drove eight-centimetre (three-inch)
spikes through each of his hands and feet before the wooden cross was raised
briefly for the crowds to see.
He was treated and bandaged at a first aid tent after the village square ritual
— then nonchalantly walked back home.
Nine other men and a woman were set to be nailed to wooden crosses in three
other villages in the region within the day, the local tourism office told
reporters.
Earlier Friday, hundreds of barefoot men wearing crowns of twigs and black
shrouds walked silently on the side of a village road in the scorching tropical
heat, flogging their backs with bamboo strips tied to a length of rope.
While many of the 80 million Filipino Catholics spend Good Friday at church or
with family, others go to these extreme lengths to atone for sins or seek
divine intervention in a spectacle that has become a major tourist attraction.
“This is a religious vow. I will do this every year for as long as I am
able,” 38-year-old truck driver Resty David, who has been
self-flagellating for half his life, told AFP.
He said he also hoped it would convince God to cure his cancer-stricken brother.
Blood and sweat soaked through the penitents’ pants with some spectators
grimacing with each strike of the lash.
Some hid behind their companions to avoid the splatter of gore and ripped
flesh.
Many in the crowds had driven for hours to witness the crucifixions — the
frenzied climax of the day’s gory spectacle that Catholics say is a
re-enactment the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
German tourist Annika Ehlers, 24, was among them.
“I’m a little bit overwhelmed. It’s very intense, I haven’t expected
something like this,” she told AFP after watching Salvador’s crucifixion.
The bloody spectacle has played out every year in villages around the city of
San Fernando, about 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Manila, despite Church
entreaties to spend Lent in quiet prayer and reflection.
“The crucifixion and death of Jesus are more than enough to redeem
humanity from the effects of sins. They are once in a lifetime events that need
not be repeated,” Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines official
Father Jerome Secillano said.
“Holy Week… is not the time to showcase man’s propensity for
entertainment and Pharisaical tendencies,” he added.
Nearly 80 percent of people in the Philippines are Catholic, a legacy of the nation’s 300 years of Spanish colonial rule that ended at the turn of the 20th century.
By AFP
