{"id":6221,"date":"2021-03-30T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T02:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/?p=6221"},"modified":"2022-04-12T16:37:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:37:20","slug":"holy-week-traditions-filipinos-observe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/2021\/03\/30\/holy-week-traditions-filipinos-observe\/","title":{"rendered":"LIST: 4 Unique Holy Week Traditions in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated as of April 12, 2022<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most important seasons is the Holy Week for many religious Filipinos. It is composed of Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday, and Easter Sunday. In the Philippines, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are regular national holidays.\u00a0Unfortunately, this year’s holy week will be another set\u00a0of “penitensya<\/em>” for many Filipinos because of the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby provinces went back to lockdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. So we’re here to give you a a little throwback of what it’s like to celebrate Lenten season here in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Many of our devout countrymen will\u00a0follow certain traditions this Holy Week. Here are some of them:<\/p>\n

Senakulo<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"IMAGE from catholicsandcultures.org<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Done during several nights on Holy Week is senakulo,<\/em> or Passion Play, a stage or street play about the life of Jesus leading to his death. The play\u00a0takes place in many communities and is usually organized by local governments with sponsors and volunteers. The bloodiest reenactment and the most popular is the senakulo<\/em> in San Pedro Catud, San Fernando, Pampanga.<\/p>\n

Siete Palabras<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"SCREENSHOT from YouTube<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The annual siete palabras<\/em> or\u00a0the reading of Jesus Christ’s seven last words is\u00a0a tradition followed during a mass or in dialogues over the radio or television. It is seen by many as a way to\u00a0reflect on his last brief sayings during the Holy Week. They have been widely used in sermons on Good Friday since the 16th century.<\/p>\n

Penitensya<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"IMAGE from Wikipedia<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Penance or penitensya<\/em> is the Filipino practice of self-discipline that is often considered a spiritual act. It’s usually depicted as something that’s severe and done in public. Men and women seeking forgiveness would use\u00a0leather straps to hit themselves at the back, carry a cross\u00a0through seven churches, or lie down in a scorching concrete pavement. Some would go further and get crucified on a cross.<\/p>\n

Salubong<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IMAGE from Philippine Primer<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Done before dawn, the salubong<\/em>\u00a0(welcome) is a ritual celebration of the Risen Christ. Young women\u00a0including the tenyeta<\/em> and the kapitana<\/em>\u00a0lead a procession of two statues, Mary in a black veil and the Risen Christ, towards the church. Eventually, they reach the stage usually in front of a church where a mechanism carrying a young girl dressed in white. She is lowered down to take off the black veil in Mary’s statue depicting the Resurrection and the end of Mary’s sorrow.<\/p>\n

Also read:\u00a0Holy Week Tradition in the Philippines<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Sources: catholicsandcultures.org<\/a>, shotroll.com<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out of the many traditions the Filipino people have, the ones done during Holy Week is considered the most important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1730],"tags":[490,992,991,535,990],"class_list":["post-6221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-history","tag-holy-week","tag-penitensya","tag-salubong","tag-senakulo","tag-siete-palabras"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6221"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10050,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221\/revisions\/10050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/tips-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}