Good Friday Procession

April 11, 2009

After watching the Penitence in Bustos , Bulacan, I chatted with some of my friends there and around 2:00 pm we went home first and then around 5:30 pm we went again in nearby plaza(Baliuag, Bulacan) to watch the floats of big images of saint to be procession at 7:30 pm.

I took some pix of the floats , as they gathering around the Cathedral, they said there are around 100 floats participating but I took only some.

Here , take a look ....

Jesus rode on a donkey as He enters to Jerusalem and welcomed by the people by waving and laying some fresh palm fronds on his way.

Jesus bids farewell to His mother

Jesus washed the feet of His apostles

Jesus cleaned the Temple

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane

Sleeping St. Peter while Jesus is praying

Jesus healed the ear of the soldier

Jesus judged by Pontius Pilate

Jesus was condemned and Barabas was freed

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

Jesus falls 1st, 2nd and 3rd times

Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross

Jesus meets women of Jerusalem

Jesus stripped of his garments

Jesus is nailed to the cross-- Crucifixion

Jesus entrusts Mary to John to each other

Jesus body is removed from the cross

The Pieta

Jesus is laid in glass

Grieving Mother

St. Mary Jacobe

St.Mary of Bethany

St. Mary Magdalene

St. Salome

St. Mary Susan

St. Joanna

Virgen De La Soledad

Good Friday Penitent

April 11, 2009


Part of Filipino Holy Week Celebration is the Penitent or Penitence.Penitent -- means, a feeling or expressing humble or regretful pain or sorrow for sins or offenses. In Roman Catholic is a person who confess and submits to a penance.

Yesterday, Good Friday, me and my children went to Bustos, Bulacan, to watch the penitent there. It's a large group of person (I've heard yesterday its around 150 person) marching from one end of the river and end inside the church in Tibagan Bustos, Bulacan.

As they were marching they were whipping their own backs that cause it into bleeding
so much. They were marching on the very, very hot road barefooted and sometimes
they all face down lied on the road (I think 3 to 5 times).You can imagine now how they endured
the suffocating and burning atmosphere and the pain on their backs. Others carry a cross and sometimes others ended in crucifying themselves but its very seldom here, in other places they used to crucify annually.

After they reach inside the church, they were all assisted by their relatives or friends because others are so weak already and sometimes can't walk straight anymore and they headed back to the river to jump and wash their bloody body there. They said it must be wash in the river not in any shower, when you jump in the river they said the wounds on their back will miraculously soon heal. Once they started this ritual, others do it annually for the rest of their lives but others just do it for 9 consecutive years only. They did this to free themselves from their sins.



I was taking photos nearly but suddenly my new silky white shirt was sprayed by blood as they whipped their backs. I felt strange so I rushed inside the fence of my friend and ask her for another shirt, luckily she said she had a new shirt for me.