Good Friday

Good Friday’s highlight is the Sinakulo or the Passion Play in some parts of the country, which starts in the churchyard and to culminate in the town plaza. The portrayal of the crucifixion sometimes becomes gory and very realistic that real nails pierce the hands of the actor playing Christ.

At the other end of the churchyard gathers the penitents or more aptly, the flagellants – those who whip their backs until they’re fleshy red in colour or until blood oozes continuously. With their heads covered by cloths to maintain anonymity, they would then walk around town still flagellating themselves in atonement for all their sins of the past year. This would go on until three o’clock in the afternoon, when Siete Palabras or the Seven Last Words have been said in the church.

In Marinduque, a province in the Visayas (which is a group of islands south of Manila), a very colourful, if not the most-colourful passion play, happens every Good Friday. It is called the Moriones Festival derived from the word morion - a Spanish word for the visor or headgear worn by the Roman soldiers during the time of Christ. The actors who play the parts of the Roman soldier don colourful masks with this headgear carved from lightwood.

The story of Christ’s passion in the Moriones Festival carries a subplot which centers on the story of Longinus – the half-blind Roman soldier who pierced the side of the crucified Christ, and was miraculously healed when drops of the precious blood of Our Savior fell on his blind eye. He was also commissioned later to guard the tomb of Jesus, and therefore witnessed His resurrection. These miracles resulted in Longinus’ conversion of faith and he became a bold witness for Christ. Unable to silence him, the Pharisees and scribes ordered his arrest. Longinus runs around the town proclaiming the Risen Lord while hordes of soldiers give chase. The play dramatically ends with the capture and beheading of Longinus