Rough Groove

Quiapo, 2 - Insight

Never have I experienced such religious fervor, sometimes bordering on fanaticism, exhibited by devotees in any religious feast other than in Quiapo, Manila, where the feast of the Black Nazarene unfolded yesterday. I have known of this celebration from readings, movies and TV shows for many years now but being there, breathing the hot atmosphere amongst the throng of heaving, hot bodies was a moving, exciting, but at the same time, scary experience that you won’t ever forget.

Feast or celebration? I’m not really sure if these words are apt. From the looks of it, it seems like the height of the Lenten season, Good Friday to be exact minus the flagellants, cross bearings and live crucifixions. But instead of these lenten fixtures, you have bloodied feet and bruised bodies and one was even placed on a stretcher, immobile, with a neck brace, result of being crushed in the ensuing stampede.

All these to touch the image, to pull the rope, to wipe one’s towel, to experience and relive their panata. All in the name of faith.