Sta. Monica Church of Minalin. The national treasure is a favorite visita iglesia destination.
PHOTOS BY BONG LACSON
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – In keeping with the spirit of the season, it’s not more fun, but more spiritually meaningful, in Pampanga during the Holy Week. A full three weeks before the start of semana santa, devotees mostly from Metro Manila have started their traditional visita iglesia rounds of the province’s heritage churches.
Busloads have been reported to have come to the lahar-buried San Guillermo Church in Bacolor, the Santiago de Apostol Church in Betis, Guagua famous for its frescoed ceiling, to Sta. Rita de Cascia Church in the eponymously named town, and Sta Monica Church in Minalin, among others.
The devotees are expected to swell further during the Holy Week with the other old churches in the towns of San Luis, Lubao, Magalang as added destinations. In the capital city last Monday, Mayor Edwin Santiago launched Maleldo 2014,the annual commemoration of the Christ’s passion and death culminating to the actual crucifixion rites in Barangay Cutud on Good Friday.
Started in 1955 with the staging of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross), a street play written in Kapampangan by Ricardo Navarro, the rites involved hundreds of flagellants wending their way to a mock Calvary where penitents are nailed on crosses.
As the event draws thousands of local and foreign tourists, security issues have always attended its holding.
At the launch, Santiago said: “Considering the great number of visitors and guests coming to San Fernando for this yearly affair, we assure our people that the City Government is prepared for any eventuality and has taken the necessary measures to ensure that order and safety prevail.”
‘New tradition’
A new entry this year in the Pampanga calendar of events for the Holy Week is the restaging of the zarzuela “Tilauk ning Manuk” (literally, The Crowing of the Cock), a fresh take on the life of Christ from the perspective of the Apostle Peter, who, in the biblical account, denied Him thrice before the cock crowed three times.
Presented by the Kaparian Kapampangan, Arti Sta. Rita and Teatru Ima with Miss Saigon-alum Andy Alviz at the helm, Tilauk ning Manuk will have its run on April 5, 7 p.m. in front of Holy Rosary Parish in Angeles City; April 12, 7 p.m., in front of the San Agustin Parish in Lubao; and April 13, 7 p.m., at the Sta. Rita Eco Park, Control Dike in San Isidro-Gasak. Admission is free.
Fr. Rick Lusung who takes the role of Jesus said of the play: “Pope Francis invites us to evangelize and be evangelized in our varied contexts. This is our response to the challenge of the New Evangelization. Come and let us celebrate our faith through this Lenten zarzuela.”
Teatro ImaArti mainstay Tess Laus, who is among the Tulauk story tellers, said as much with the play being her group’s way of evangelizing younger generations of Christians and attracting people to re-examine their faith.
Holy mountain
In Barangay Ayala of Magalang town, Mt. Arayat itself serves as Mount Calvary, thus the appellation “Banal a Bundok,” with life-size Stations of the Cross erected starting from the 1st Station at the foot rising up to the 14th some 1.6 kilometers to the summit.
Under the administration of the Soroptimist International of Magalang headed by Bing Feliciano, Banal a Bundok, opened in 2012, drew an estimated 75,000 pilgrims last year. A 35- foot statue of the Risen Christ overlooking all the other Stations though is still under construction.
Department of Tourism Regional Director Ronnie Tiotuico said that for this year, his office will offer a “Pilgrim’s Certificate or Diploma” for every visitor which will be sold for P20 to help raise funds for the project as well for the upkeep of the pilgrimage site.
Tiotuico said the certificate or diploma will make a “wonderful souvenir” like the ones given to pilgrims in the Holy Land in Jerusalem.
Sabuaga Festival
A unique celebration of Easter Sunday can be found in the small town of Sto. Tomas. Added to the traditional salubong or the first meeting of the Risen Christ and the Virgin Mary with the attendant puso-puso from where rains confetti and flower petals on the images, is the procession of pomp and pageantry of sagalas in their finest Filipiniana fineries representing characters in the Resurrection drama as well as choirs singing glorious hymns.
Then, there is the town’s now signature festival – “Sabuaga,” a contracted combination of sabuag (scatter) and sampaga (flowers). Petals and confetti literally rain on the processional route around Poblacion, starting 2 p.m. of Easter Sunday as revelers join groups coming from the town’s seven barangays in street dancing.
At the town plaza where the revelry culminates, the groups in their most exotic costumes reflective of the product of the barangays they represent will each do its own interpretative dance presentation, on the theme sabuag sampaga, naturally.
Judges coming from the arts, culture and tourism sector will proclaim the winners. A trade and industry component to the festival is provided by the town’s one-barangay-one-product exhibit around the town plaza, with each barangay displaying its produce, notably the pottery and ceramics of Sto. Niño, and the caskets of San Vicente.
Sto. Tomas is known as the casket capital of Central Luzon, if not of the whole country, having at one time supplied funeral parlors throughout the whole archipelago and even nearby Asian countries. In effect, Sabuaga serves as a one-stop showcase of the spirituality, culture, and industry of the people of Sto. Tomas.
Sabuaga serves too as a fitting climax to the Holy Week celebration in Pampanga, being the last major event of the season.
