SAMAL, Bataan — The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) or Aglipay Church here joined the whole Christendom in commemorating Palm Sunday which is considered as the first day of the Holy Week.
The faithful first gathered at a designated place in Barangay San Juan where a procession started and stopped in other assigned areas in the población to the IFI Church under the Saint Catherine of Siena parish.
Children in white sang and danced and threw flower petals in every stopover and later at the church.
Devotees carried palm fronds or palaspas and waved the leaves to mark the triumphant entry of Christ to Jerusalem.
Fr. Roderick Miranda, IFI parish priest, who led in the blessing of the palm leaves officiated in the Holy Mass after the procession.
Meanwhile, replica of Calvary known as “kalbaryo” among local folks common during the Holy Week began to be seen on Saturday in some barangays of Samal and Abucay towns. The number of kalbaryo is expected to increase also in the towns of Orani, Hermosa, Pilar and Balanga City.
The kalbaryo symbolizes the hardships of Christ from the time He was “arrested” and nailed to the cross in Mount Calvary. The Passion of Christ or “pasyon” will be heard in every kalbaryo beginning Holy Monday and sometime in the night of Palm Sunday.
The kalbaryo are of different sizes, color and shapes but all are decorated with flowers and made of locally-sourced materials like bamboos and cogon.
At Sitio Cenro in Barangay Sta. Lucia, Samal, featured was the crucified Christ while Sitio Benedict of the same village has for its theme a vacant cross.
Women of Jerusalem welcoming the Christ with a crucified cross were the main feature in the kalbaryo in Barangay Calguiman, also in Samal.
In Barangay Mabatang in Abucay, one kalbaryo showed a crucified Christ while the Last Supper was featured in the second one.
