Next to Christmas season, Holy Week or Semana Santa is the most celebrated religious event in the Philippines. Growing up in Iloilo, Semana Santa was a revered occasion observed by everybody in our clan, so much so that most of the beliefs and traditions that were inculcated in my young mind have stayed with me until now. Even when I live far from the elders of my family, and they cannot see my religious violations, I still adhere to some of the ideas and ideals they taught me.

Here are 10 things I loved about holy weeks in the Philippines, especially in Iloilo (this is an edited version of an old entry called Semana Santa, whose existence I completely forgot. Since I am stubborn, I decided to see this entry through but in a list version. Forbes said that lists usually get more traffic than the essay format. :)):

Visita Iglesia was not popular in our town because we had only one church.

For related entries, please read Semana Santa and Visita Iglesia.

1. Palm Sunday

Semana Santa kicked off on Palm Sunday, where hundreds of my townmates attended the 7am mass to have their palaspas (palm leaves) blessed by the priest. We proudly paraded these palaspas from the doors of the church to the gates of our abodes like badges of honor. Then, the palm leaves were skillfully transformed into organic crosses. These crosses adorned the main door, the back door, the door of each room, and some parts of the walls. I grew up looking at these palm crosses like they were stars in the horizon, ready to guide me to the right path.

2. Reenactment of the Last Supper

On Maundy Thursday, we made a beeline to the plaza. The stage was set to look like the scene in the Last Supper. The parish priest portrayed Jesus Christ; he washed the feet of the apostles who were represented by the most esteemed members of our town. As a child, I did not understand any of it. I just noticed the clothes of the apostles, and I zeroed in on the one that had the best color combination of robe and toga.

3. Via Crucis (The Way of the Cross)

The highlight of Semana Santa was Good Friday. Very early in the morning, my aunts and I woke up early to join the The Way of the Cross, which consists of 14 stations with images that demonstrate what happened to Jesus Christ during Holy Week. Each image has an accompanying prayer. Thousands of people participated in this procession, which started at the church and made its way to the highest point in our town, a hill, which represents Mount Calvary (we call it kalbaryo). This kalbaryo is at least two-hour walk from the church. The procession passed by our house, so we usually joined the throng of believers after the third or fourth station. I know we cheated.

The procession began with the priest leading everybody. After 30 minutes, half of the attendees walked ahead of the priest and trudged to the top of the hill. At the top, the 14^th Station of the Cross stood tall and proud. These fast walkers went down before the priest reached the foot of the hill.

Beside the cross were ice cream and ice water vendors who eagerly welcomed each thirsty believer (this was before bottled water reached my town). Once we descended, we visited our relatives in the area. They served us ibos which we dipped in chocolate drink made from tablea. We finished the meal with a slice or two of ripe mangoes.

4. Siete Palabras (Seven Last Words from the Cross)

After the Via Crucis, we spent our afternoon listening to the radio broadcast of Jesus’ Siete Palabras. This was way before the television broadcast. I told myself that if Jesus said seven words, it would not take more than two minutes. Of course, I was wrong. I did not know that it was actually seven statements, and each statement was explained by a religious leader or expert. My younger self fell asleep beside the radio, and my snores were louder than the broadcast.

 

5. Kapilya Making Contest

Our church at the time I was growing up sponsored a kapilya making contest and a pasyon singing contest. Both of which were participated by all the religious who lived in the town proper and in the barangays. One or two streets in the town proper were paired with one or two barangays. Each team was tasked to make bigger-than-life versions of a station of the cross. The teams were allowed to use indigenous and recycled materials to make life-size images of Jesus Christ, Pontius Pilate, Mary Magdalene and Mama Mary, among others. The kapilya were unveiled around 6pm. My brother, cousin and I started at Station VIII because it was assigned to our barangay. We said hello to the people we knew and proceeded to Station I. After that, we visited the kapilya in chronological order. The winners of the kapilya making contest were announced on Easter Sunday mass. We were first only once in the entire history of this contest.

6. Pasyon Singing Contest

The pasyon narrates the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but set in a song punctuated by lengthening the last syllable of each line. It accompanied and explained the scene depicted by kapilya.

I was forced to join the pasyon group when I was 11 or 12 when I could not say no. Haha. The pasyon singing group was made up of 90% women and children and 10% men who could hit the high notes. We practiced every weekend night a couple of months before Holy Week, and if Holy Week fell after the classes ended, we practiced nightly. We were taught how to elongate the words and how to look at the audience while gracefully holding the booklet with lyrics. Then, we were also taught how to sit in bamboo chairs for hours with smiles on our faces. Lastly, we were taught to wear the kimona (translucent embroidered top) and patadyong (wrap around loose skirt with checkered pattern. I borrowed my grandmother’s patadyong) like proper ladies and tie our hair in neat buns. In the midst of the singing and learning, I discovered that I could not sing to save my life. No amount of salabat (ginger tea) and vocalization could improve my voice, so I just hummed and faked everything. 😛 The winners of the pasyon singing contest were announced on Easter Sunday mass. We never won.

7. Hado (Kissing the feet of Santo Entierro)

At the end of the pasyon singing, we joined the hundreds of people who lined up for the hado (kissing of feet of Jesus’ image). The good altar boys were careful to always coat Jesus’ feet with perfumed water. That smell is very powerful that decades later, it is still ingrained in my memory in a good way.

 

8. Dampog (The Welcoming of the Risen Christ)

On Easter Sunday, we woke up at 2am to get the best view of the stage for the dampog (we had a girl or boy angel, between 5-7 years old) announcing the resurrection of Jesus. Then, the images of the sorrowing Mary and the Risen Jesus Christ meet and bells ring to celebrate the momentous event.

The dampog meant elaborate set-ups to act as a backdrop of a momentous event that lasted for ten minutes. Once, the angel “flew” from the top of the church to the stage, some 100 meters away. This was before zip lines became safe and fun. Another time, a giant globe, around 30 feet in diameter, opened up to reveal the angel.

9. Catching up with Comic Reading

When I was a child, Good Friday and Black Saturday were silent days full of prayers and reflection. There was nothing on the radio and before cable tv, tv screens had black and white dots. Malls were nonexistent in those days. Of course, making unnecessary noise, horsing around, and playing outside our gate when “Jesus Christ is dead” were also prohibited.

Since we had nothing to do save for religious activities, my brother and I planned ahead. Days before Good Friday, we would pester our parents for coins in exchange of performing small chores. With our combined loot happily jingling in our pockets, we trekked up a tiny hill to our aunt’s sari-sari store where we rented Filipino comics for P0.25 each. We borrowed 20 or so comics to be devoured each page in those two days, mainly on Black Saturday. Those Filipino comics taught me to be well versed in Filipino at a relatively young age.

I am not sure if the comics for adults have changed or if they still exist, but let me say that the men and women of those comics looked like Barbie and Ken and the zombies and other monsters continue to haunt my dreams (fortunately, I rarely dream).

10. 7^th Heaven Marathon

The introduction of Studio 23 in free tv changed our lives, especially our Holy Weeks. For years, my brother and I looked forward to the start of Holy Week because it meant 7^th Heaven marathons. Our butts were stuck in our respective chairs and our eyeballs were glued to the screen for hours. We must have eaten our lunches and snacks in that position. Our favorite character was Happy the dog.

The theme song of 7th Heaven was the only one I memorized at the time. We were very much invested in the lives of the Camdens and of Happy that our days revolved around the schedule of the show. Our friends did not share our love for the show. Our father did not get it either. Our male cousin tried to join us but got bored. After just one episode, our female cousin became our first recruit. The three of us saw the Camden children grow up and have their own family. I think we stopped caring when the characters became too numerous and they started hooking up with each other’s ex. Yet, we showed unwavering adoration for Happy the dog.