In the name of the father and the son....

today is good friday, the most important day on the Catholic calender some might say. The day that we remember the ultimate sacrifice that He made for us. Well, here, in the Philipines, simply reading about it in two thousand year old scriptures is not enough, no, here in the Philipines we are visual learners and thinkers and we need to see what happened in order to truly understand and apreciate the sacrifice. So on this day, in the small city of San Fernando, 7 men went and had themselves nailed (right through their freaking hands! I am almost white as a ghost again just writing about it) to a cross in an act that will bring them forgiveness or perhaps new found health and well being for an ill family member.
there was a whole re-enactment of the passion of christ, pilate was there, judas hanged himself (that actual was only a dramatization!), there was a whole crowd of people cheering and booing etc and it was actually kind of weirdly moving in a bloody kind of way... keep in mind that prior to all this, dozens of men not bound for the cross were walking the streets flagellating themselves. they had covered their faces with cloth, many had a crown of thorns, all of them were dripping with blood as they continued to whip and carry out the act of mortification of the flesh as a reminder of the degradation the He suffered... so back at the passion of Christ re-enactment....
you had to be really careful to avoid the bloodied men as you squeezed in around the crowds for a better view - i had Jesus Christ Superstar songs stuck in my head for most the day which created a rather holy moment for me - that was until of course good old ange and her 'not so tough at all style' prevailed and i found myself weak at the knees, white as a ghost and ready to pass out completely! (and the nailing action hadn't even bloody started!) i found comfort under a small tree (judas would hang himself at this very tree later on) and sniffed on some smelling oils that I had conveniently tucked away in my bum bag. then it all started to get rowdy! the music intensified and the shouting was deafening, there they were dragging jesus to the peak of the hill, his back already dripping with blood after his lashings. many people were playing the part (many were just curious onlookers viewing the whole thing through their cameras) but everyone was completely fixated on what was happening in front of them. 'Jesus' let out a wail as he was nailed in one hand at a time and then his cross was raised for all to see.... (again at this point I really didn't want to look to closely, i mean the man had huge bloody railway sleeper nails in his hands!!! :o)
once 'Jesus' was pulled down and rushed to the medical centre, 6 other men took their turns to show their repentance and endure pain as their Saviour did....
we slowly walked back to our bus as the final man was brought down from his cross - still feeling kinda weak and not sure what to think about the whole thing there was a moment of silent reflection and disbelief, and then i saw the blood splatter all along the side of our van! we obviously came too close to a gang of self flagellaters and our van now looked like it was witness to a serious crime!

"Are Filipinos bloody devout Catholics?" they replied as one "It is as you say"