Filipinos pray, bathe to mark Easter Monday

April 16, 2007-->Web posted at: 4/5/2007 8:21:34
Source ::: REUTERS

Mount banahaw, Philippines • Hundreds of Filipinos, including members of sects and mystics holding candles, bathed in the rivers of Mount Banahaw yesterday in an annual pilgrimage to celebrate the start of Easter.

Although the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, with over 80 per cent of its 87 million population estimated to be followers, tribal beliefs and local superstitions infuse Christianity in this Southeast Asian country.

In the northern Philippines, a handful of villages are gearing up for annual Good Friday crucifixions where volunteers are nailed to crosses and hoisted up for five excruciating minutes as an expression of their faith.

The gruesome ritual, which is frowned upon by the Catholic Church, has evolved into a major spectacle and local travel agents are now offering overnight packages for tourists with strong constitutions.

On Mt Banahaw, 170 km southeast of Manila, pilgrims queued to stand under waterfalls believed to have healing powers. Others prayed in caves festooned with Catholic icons.
“It’s a sacred mountain. Drinking the water makes you healthy,” said Marison Chavez, 38.
Some believe people that Banahaw is the new Jerusalem and that Jesus set foot there. Others say it’s the site of alien abductions. For most, the jungle-clad 2,188-metre mountain is a beautiful place to pray and camp out during the holidays.

For Filipinos, Easter is a time for church rituals and family, with millions fleeing the heat of Manila for the countryside. For the less devout, sunbathing and television will top the agenda with many people stocking up on DVDs for the five-day break.

Airports, piers and bus stations were already crowded ahead of the holiday and the police were on high alert.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who turns 60 today, will go on an annual retreat with her cabinet, and Catholic bishops have asked politicians to stop campaigning for May 14 congressional elections over the break.

Celebrations will be held all over the archipelago on Easter Sunday, particularly on the heart-shaped island of Marinduque, where men wearing painted wooden masks re-enact the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But most media attention will be focused on the small, dusty village of Cutud, about 80 km north of Manila, for its crucifixion spectacle.

Last year, around 30,000 people, including tourists from Germany, Canada and Britain, crowded around the crosses. There was even a viewing platform for VIPs.

Across the archipelago and despite the extreme heat, many Filipinos will avoid taking a shower or doing laundry after 3pm [0700 GMT] on Good Friday—the time Christ was believed to have died—for fear something bad will befall them.

But a spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines dismissed the practice as superstition. “Take a bath,” Monsignor Pedro Quitorio said this week.