As a nation that highly values religious traditions, Holy Week in the Philippines is celebrated in total solemnity.

Both Christian and superstitious traditions mix in remembering the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Many still practice not eating pork/beef during the Lenten season, while others acquire some other forms of penance or fasting. I remember being told by my grandparents not to take a bath/shower on Good Friday, or to be exhuberant in this day of ‘mourning’.

Growing up my sibs and I would line the streets with candles, waiting for bloodletting to begin… yep, bloodletting. Beginning at noon on Friday, we would see several men naked from the waist up and walking barefoot as they scourge themselves with ropes or bamboo sticks. It’s a form of atonement for their sins, we were told. The pinacle of this is hanging several men on crosses as a reenactment of Jesus’ crucifixion. All across town, there are dramatizations and reciting of the passion of Christ. All across the nation, the lent is celebrated with fervor and solemnity.

In Quiapo Manila, there is the procession of the Black Nazarene, a century-old black statue of Jesus that devotees consider to be miraculous. In Manila there is the Visita Iglesias, or the practice of visiting 14 churches and reciting the 14 stations of the cross.

In Marinduque, there is the Moriones Festivals, where people dress up like Roman soldiers to remember the beheading of Longinos. In Sipalay, Negros Occidental, quack doctors go to unexplored caves on Good Friday in search of amulets for healing and power.

The most famous of all lenten celebration is the “PAGTALTAL SA JORDAN” in Guimaras Island. Attended by tourists from all over the world, it’s a reenactment of Jesus’ sufferings on his way to calvary.

Brief History of the Lenten Season

It seems certain that a Lenten season preceding Easter goes back to the time of the Apostles. The length of time varied. But by the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.), which was the first general council of the Church, Lent is to be observed for forty days.

The number forty has a long biblical history: The forty days' fasts of Moses, Elijah and especially Our Lord in the desert.

During the early days of the Church, the observance of fast was very strict. One meal was allowed per day and, even in that meal, meat and fish were forbidden. By the fifteenth century, the one meal was taken at noon.

Gradually an extra collation was allowed in the evening.

The present legislation of Canon Law is as follows:

• All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the universal Church (Canon 1250).
• Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Canon 1251).

According to the apostolic constitution of Pope Paul VI (1966), "the law of abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk or condiments made of animal fat. The law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening."

Although not strictly obligatory, the observance of fasting on all weekdays of Lent is strongly recommended by the Church. This recommendation applies to the Marian Catechists.

One statement that is new in the Code of Canon Law declares that "pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast (eighteenth year completed) and abstinence (fourteenth year completed) are educated in an authentic sense of penance" (Canon 1252). This provision certainly applies to Marian Catechists who are in a position to educate young people "in an authentic sense of penance."