11 images Created 25 Feb 2013
Palawan - Puerto Princesa Holy Week
The Philippines is a devoutly Roman Catholic country and this is most clearly evident during Holy Week over the Easter period from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. On Palm Sunday, worshippers carry palm fronds to church to be blessed by the priest. Many Filipinos take them home and place them on door lintels or windows, in the belief that the fronds can ward off evil spirits and avert lightning.
On Good Friday there is a street procession in Puerto Princesa that re-enacts the way of the cross, with fanatical devotees engaged in self-flagellation and prostrating themselves at roadside alters on the way to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. The smell of blood fills the air, and if I ever get too close to the devotees to photograph them, then I often have to wipe the blood from my lens. Catholic bishops have discouraged such acts of extreme penitence, especially the even more grisly act of crucifixion, which is still performed, often clandestinely, in some parts of the Philippines. In Puerto Princesa a crucifixion is re-enacted at Calgary Hill using a life-sized replica of Jesus Christ.
On the evening of Easter Sunday there is a candle-lit procession of hundreds of people, and vehicles carrying religious effigies, from the cathedral through the streets of Puerto Princesa. On returning to the cathedral worshippers gather at the entrance to light hundreds of candles. It is a beautiful, if not rather hot, spectacle to photograph, with scores of reverential faces illuminated by candlelight.
On Good Friday there is a street procession in Puerto Princesa that re-enacts the way of the cross, with fanatical devotees engaged in self-flagellation and prostrating themselves at roadside alters on the way to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. The smell of blood fills the air, and if I ever get too close to the devotees to photograph them, then I often have to wipe the blood from my lens. Catholic bishops have discouraged such acts of extreme penitence, especially the even more grisly act of crucifixion, which is still performed, often clandestinely, in some parts of the Philippines. In Puerto Princesa a crucifixion is re-enacted at Calgary Hill using a life-sized replica of Jesus Christ.
On the evening of Easter Sunday there is a candle-lit procession of hundreds of people, and vehicles carrying religious effigies, from the cathedral through the streets of Puerto Princesa. On returning to the cathedral worshippers gather at the entrance to light hundreds of candles. It is a beautiful, if not rather hot, spectacle to photograph, with scores of reverential faces illuminated by candlelight.
