'There's more to Pampanga than crucifixion'

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – The province is seeking to offer Holy Week visitors more than crucifixions and flaggelations.

Robby Tantingco, director of the Center for Kapampangan Studies of Holy Angel University in Angeles City, said efforts are being made to attract more tourists by offering features other than the traditional crucifixion and bloody flagellations that have caught global attention.

Barangay Cutud here attracts hordes of visitors because of the annual crucifixion of devotees, apart from hundreds flogging themselves on the road to the makeshift Calvary every Good Friday.

“For a change, why not avoid the madding crowd and discover little-known Holy Week events in Pampanga,” he said.

He listed seven alternatives for pilgrims and tourists.

Tantingco cited the Pasyon Serenata on Holy Wednesday evening in Barangay San Basilio in Sta. Rita town.

“It’s a showdown between two brass bands and their respective choirs, who try to outperform each other by chanting the pasyon to the tune of classical operas. They play all night long, one page at a time, until they finish the whole book. The sight and sound of betel-chewing barrio folks singing the entire history of salvation in Kapampangan to the tune of Verdi and Puccini will blow you away. Despite their ‘gue-gue’ (betel) it’s a performance worthy of a concert hall instead of some dusty road in a remote farming village,” he said.

Then there’s the grand assembly of penitents in Mabalacat City in the early morning of Good Friday.

“It’s a scene straight out of a Cecil B. DeMille movie: hundreds, maybe thousands, of half-naked flagellants and cross-bearers in flowing red robes, brought together by sin and tradition, converge in the church patio for an orgy of suffering, self-mutilation and penance. The number of penitents makes you wonder if flagellation, like circumcision, is a rite of passage among boys in Pampanga,” he said.

Tantingco also cited the cenakulos of Barangay Pampang in Angeles City, also on Good Friday. 

“Here, there are at least two passion plays, performed by actors from the vicinity of the public market: one at Barangay Lourdes Northwest which culminates in a live crucifixion watched by hundreds if not thousands, and a smaller, less-known version, at Area, in Barangay. Sta. Teresita, the place once known for its brothels, which give the reenactment another layer of meaning and significance, especially since the Christ-figure is savagely mauled and is rescued by weeping women,” he noted.

Tantingco added that on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, transvestites could be seen bearing heavy crosses. “They are among penitents all over Pampanga, but it takes luck to catch them.”

They include those who carry electric posts and huge banana trunks going to Barangay San Agustin in Magalang.

There are also women cross-bearers, some of whom tie a sword around their waist pressed against their chin to keep their heads up.

There are also penitents who are tied to the same cross so that they can take turns dragging the heavy burden in Dau, Mabalacat.

“In Barangay Lourdes Northwest, Angeles City, I saw a cancer-stricken mother carrying a cross while her entire family prayed the rosary and followed her around. And then there are the dreadful magsalibatbat, those who crawl the road for miles, rubbing their skin continuously against the concrete until they’re all bruised and covered with dirt,” Tantingco said.

In Guagua town also on Good Friday, there is the tanggal tradition.

“This is the ritual where a life-size statue of Jesus with moveable neck and joints is taken down from the cross and laid down and dressed up to become the Santo Entierro (Interred Christ).”

“In the past, parish workers close all church doors and windows and banged metal to simulate the eclipse and thunderclaps that supposedly accompanied the Crucifixion, and to arouse the same fear and awe experienced by the Jews. Today, we just rely on the rhetoric and theatrics of the Siete Palabras speakers,” Tantingco said.

He said that on Good Friday, the entire province quiets down as night falls on Good Friday, when parishes hold hushed processions of their heirloom statues led by the Santo Entierro and the Mater Dolorosa.

“They’re all happening simultaneously: the candlelit carrozas of Arayat which transport you back in time, the sweet sound of violins playing Stabat Mater in San Fernando,” Tantingco said.

The added attraction include rose petals being thrown from the balcony of the Rodriguez Mansion, the pomp, pageantry and piety of Sta. Rita reminiscent of Lino Brocka’s Tinimbang ka Ngunit Kulang, the breathtaking beauty of the Mater Dolorosa of Guagua and the grandeur of the Santo Entierro of Sasmuan.

“But if you have to attend only one, make it Bacolor, the colonial capital of the province, whose old families, driven away by the lahar of the 1990s, make a sentimental journey back home to accompany their respective paso (float). Tradition dictates that they wear black, cover their heads with pointed hoods, hold icons of the crucifixion and walk barefoot. The antiquity and craftsmanship alone of the santos and their silver-plated carrozas will make your jaw drop,” he said.

Tantingco also cited the Biernes Santo procession of Sasmuan town on Good Friday, which he described as “unusual.” 

“It’s unusual because the grim procession of the dead Jesus and His grieving Mother is followed by a grimmer procession of magdarame or the flagellants and cross-bearers,” he said.

“This is Pampanga, where religious piety collides with folk defiance, where the holiest days of the year are celebrated in the unholiest manner, where the charming and solemn rites of the Church coexist with the raw, bloody but ultimately more exuberant rituals of the common folk,” Tantingco added.