Olsen in his “great experience”. PHOTO GRABBED FROM THE INTERNET
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — A 48-year-old filmmaker from Denmark upstaged nine other Filipino “Kristos” when he showed up for crucifixions last Good Friday in Barangay San Pedro Cutud here.
City tourism officer Ching Pangilinan identified the Danish national as Lasse Spang Olsen who, she noted, had been here a few years ago to do a film on the Lenten practices, particularly the actual crucifixions.
She said Olsen was allowed to be crucified by barangay organizers of the traditional crucifixions after he presented a waiver of liability from the Embassy of Denmark. Pangilinan noted that in the recent years, organizers had banned foreigners because of adverse experiences with them.
In 2006, a British national attracted attention by announcing he would join the crucifixions here, but he backed out in the last minute, while in 1996, a Japanese national had himself nailed on the cross as part of a pornographic film.
At another time, an Australian had himself crucified for a comedy footage. The appearance of Olsen- who wore a white cloth from his waist, a simulated, leafy crown of thorns on his head, and a tiny camera hanging from his neck- elicited comments from surprised local onlookers.
“Ang pogi. Parang siya si Jesus,” remarked one teenaged girl to her friend as they shielded themselves with a huge umbrella from the sun’s heat. Unlike some of the other local Kristos who cried out when they were nailed alternately
to wooden crosses, Olsen only grimaced and stoically closed his eyes as the nails were driven through his palms.
He also remained silent as he was raised by costumed “centurions” on his cross that stood erect for a few minutes before he was brought down. “Great experience,” he remarked when reporters asked for his comment as he left the makeshift Golgotha.
While Olsen attracted the most attention, the “main Kristo” was still commercial sign painter Ruben Enaje, 53, whose crucifixion last Good Friday was his 28th since he fi rst volunteered for it as thanksgiving to God for sparing his life in a fall from a building he was painting.
Pangilinan said the city government had provided at least P500,000 to ensure peace and order in the Good Friday observances that attract tens of thousands of tourists to this city every year.
“We are not making any declaration in regard to whether the rituals and practices should be condoned, but what is clear is that we should maintain peace and order,” she stressed. An estimated 40,000 visitors arrived here for the crucifixions.
Catholic Church authorities here have discouraged the bloody Lenten practices of local folk and instead encouraged resort to the traditional sacraments and Church-approved means of mortification such as fasting and abstinence.
But for decades since the bloody crucifixions began to attract tourists, folk in San Pedro Cutud have considered Good Friday their fiesta, serving meat dishes and even alcoholic beverages to visitors, either at some cost for strangers or for free in the case of expected relatives and friends.
Their official fiesta, however, is every June 29, the feast of their patron St. Peter.
