Kwaresma is Lent. It is the season when Filipinos remember Christ’s passion (his suffering and death) and resurrection. It starts on Ash Wednesday, forty days before Easter Sunday. On this day, you will see Catholic Filipinos returning from church with ash smudged on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. If you don’t have […]
Today is Good Friday, the Friday of Holy Week when the Christians commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Unlike the days when I post about my usual topics on technology, business and other matters, I will now talk about Holy Week, a significant religious festival in the Philippines. In our predominantly Roman Catholic country, […]
It’s Holy Week once again, the time when Catholics do their penance and commemorates the passion and death of Jesus Christ to save mankind. Starting Palm Sunday, the day were we commemorate the victorious entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. In the Philippines, during Palm Sunday, sidewalks near the church were full of vendors selling […]
ALONGSIDE THE LITURGICAL celebrations that the Church observes during the Holy Week are practices which, in the Philippines, have long been linked with it. Among them are the siete palabras, the way of the cross, procession of images, salubong,pabasa, cenaculo, and penitencia. For most Catholics, they not only add color to the week-long celebrations, but […]
Holy Week or Mahal na Araw in the Philippines includes numerous traditional events. This is the country where Roman Catholics make 81% of population. 5% of Filipinos belong to Protestant churches. 4% of population belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Iglesia Ni Cristo, Philippine Independent Church, Seventh Day Adventist, United Church […]
Holy week, which means Hebdomas Sancta or Hebdomas Maior, “Greater Week” in Latin, is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter according to the Catholic tradition. It commemorates the last week of Jesus Christ’s life as a man on Earth, as recorded in the Canonical gospels. This week involves fasting and abstinence […]
Being the only Christian nation in the Far East, the belief of such religious observance was inherently Christian in origin brought to the Philippines by the Spanish Conquistadors when they first planted the Cross, symbol of Christianity, on the islands thus signaling the advent of the conversion of the natives to the faith of the […]
While holy week is recognized by most Christian / Catholic denominations, most countries emphasizes mainly on the Easter Sunday and Good Friday. Only few countries with strong Christian / Catholic tradition such as Philippines, Panama, and Puerto Rico put the same emphasis to holy week. Holy Week 2012 in Philippines Holy Week is a significant […]
Holy Week brings the Philippines to a standstill every year, as Roman Catholic Filipinos (the majority in the country) take advantage of the four-day weekend that begins on Holy Thursday. Most Filipinos in the cities pack up and leave for the provinces, leaving formerly bustling urban areas desolate for lack of people. But that doesn’t […]