A special multimedia report by Chantal Nabong, Jedd De Luna, Oliver Palileo, and Karla Jiao
As a Christian nation, Holy Week reminds us about what happened to Jesus, why He had to suffer and die, and that He rose after three days and why this is important. And for us to remember His love, we do different traditions to celebrate the week with our family.
Visita Iglesia in the Philippines
In preserving the tradition of Catholics, it has been both a tradition for Filipino devotees to do rounds of churches during Holy Week to honour the death, passion, and undying love of Christ.
The Visita Iglesia (Church Visit) is a Holy Week practice by devotees where they visit and pray in at least 7 churches.
Many devotees believe that seven is the number of divine perfection. Different theories exist as to the significance of number seven; seven scripture passages of Christ’s arrest and trial, Jesus’ seven last words, seven holy wounds ,seven first Christian holy sites in Israel, seven deacons of the twelve apostles, seven ancient basilicas of Rome, and the historical seven deacons of Rome, responsible for ministering to the poor.
Stations of the Cross is held during Maundy Thursday on their church visits. Devotees either do one station per church, which completes 14 rounds of churches, or divide the stations on all respective churches that they will visit.
Marked as the home to majority of people being of the Christian faith (80%), Filipino devotees never run out of churches to visit. Here are some of the churches that Catholics may visit during Visita Iglesia:
Maundy Thursday to Black Saturday is declared as a regular holiday and Special Non-working Holiday on the Philippines.
Not your ordinary ‘Stations of the Cross’
In Bonifacio Global City along with Bonifacio High Street in Taguig is an exhibit for people who would like to reflect on the stations of the cross and apply them by doing acts that are shown in the standees.
Now on its seventh year, “Walkway: Reflections on the Stations of the Cross” is back again to showcase an exhibit by Church Simplified that takes place in the High Street grounds from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.
The exhibit included a cross where you can nail your sins, doubts, and problems that you wrote on a red slip, carry a 20 or 40-kilo cross, and even partake of the ‘last supper,’ where you break the bread and drink the wine.
According to Adam Walker, an Australian missionary who has been volunteering for four years with his wife, that for the previous year, an estimate of 25,000 to 40,000 people came to the Walkway.
“I think the purpose of Walkway, really, is to give people who, throughout the holy week, looking to kind of experience and understand what holy week is about,” said Walker.
He added that “this art installation is meant to really just take people through a journey and help them kind of think about things, perhaps if they’re not thinking about [it] regularly.”
“So our goal, really, is to kind of help people slow down over Holy Week, help people understand, I guess, what happened in Holy Week, you know, from the Christian message side as well. But also to kind of give people that space to reflect, to pause, and you know, wherever they are in that journey to kind of take the next step in their faith wherever that may be,” Walker said.
Melinda Romulo, who went back for her third year of doing ‘Walkway,’ told On The Lookout that the reason why she came back with her husband is that “this year, as Simon helped Jesus on the cross, we also want to be a Simon in someone else’s life – reaching them for Jesus.”
Carmen Rivero, a mother of one, said that “the Walkway is the best place to go and reflect if you’re within the city,” while waiting for her son and husband to meet her there.
‘Walkway’ started because of Bebo Bharwani, the head pastor of Church Simplified, and their leadership team where, according to Walker, they “wanted to do it in a way that is a little more interactive and a little bit different in terms of how we connect with people. So, it largely came out of church, kind of, wanting to do something, you know, taking the opportunity in Holy Week to give that people the space to think about their sins in life.”
They hope to have an eighth ‘Walkway’ next holy week that would be “bigger and better.”
Walkway also had free concerts; MuteMath played on a Tuesday while Kye Kye sang on Easter Sunday, wherein last year they brought out Jars of Clay and Gungor.
Church Simplified means every Sunday at the 2nd’s Restaurant in The Fort and meets at around 4:30PM.
Families frolic to Eco Park this Holy Week
While most of us escape the city and went to the provinces to have a break from work or to reflect, many of our countrymen are satisfied have their vacation within the city.
During the Holy Week, many people spent their whole day at the La Mesa Watershed and Eco Park in Fairview, Quezon City.
It consists of the La Mesa Dam, an earth dam which it can hold up to 50.5 cubic meters of water and it is supplies most of the water supply of Metro Manila, and it has a nature ecological park within the facility.
Hundreds of families went to the park to bond with their love ones.
Within the park, there are many beautiful attractions you can see. There is an uphill that is decorated with flowers and other ornaments, and you can see the whole park as well as the dam when you reach the top.
And as you enjoy the beautiful view, there are many things you can do. Aside from swimming, you can also do bungee jumping, zip line, riding in a kalesa or horseback riding.
“Staycation”
The time to reflect is upon us once again. Since the start of the 30th day of March, the Lenten Season has begun. Students, workers, and families look forward to the holy occasion in hopes of a well deserved break.
As ritual practitioners commemorate their Holy Week break through flagellating or through devoted acts of Visita Iglesias, others prefer to have a vacation – either out of the city or simply taking a load off at home.
“Noong panahon, Thursday palang sarado na mga mall. Pagdating ng Friday mahihirapan ka ng maghanap ng mga kainan sa labas kasi lahat talaga sarado na. Lahat nasa mga kanya kanyang mga pamilya,” recalled Ernesto, a 64-year-old retired employee, remembering the days when everything was still simple.
Recollecting that he was among those who was excited when the Lenten Season was just around the corner, during his younger years, he sighs on how the changes have became so quickly and so vastly.
After the most celebrated Christmas Holiday, the next most awaited season would be summer. As early as the start of the year, the young generations of today readily plan their most awaited fun under the sun recoiling on the activities and destinations opted.
These years, armed with a fast developing society, everybody has their choice of entertainment to kill time – this meaning the substitution of the “supposed” meditation time, to an activity-filled week set for the Lenten Season explained GMA Network Lifestyle News on a Holy Week ‘Staycation’ special.
According to a number of people who spent their Holy Week ‘staycationing’: spending quality time with the family or close friends nearby, such as watching movies together or simply catching up on each other took 58% of the population; checking in hotels had 21%; and the remaining 21% maximized the time for their hobbies.
While time killers contemplate on which activities to partake in, under the Cebu Daily News, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma is requesting the Catholic people to partake in religious festivities instead.
He said the Holy Week is supposed to be the most somber period of the liturgical calendar leading up to the joy of Easter Sunday.
“There are 52 weeks in a year, and only one week when we are called to commemorate the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. If you intend to go on vacation, please do it after the Holy Week.”
ON THE LOOKOUT 