SUBSCRIBEInfanta flagellant-penitents, 3
continued from Infanta flagellant-penitents, 2
The click clacking of the panghampas woke me from my slumber. Not that it was deafeningly loud but ironically, it reverberated in my head, faint but eerie, floating above the slight din of occasional tricycles passing by as some of the denizens of Infanta are slowly awakening and preparing already for the coming day, a Good Friday. 0300H, and the cocks are starting to crow like imploring the town to arise even if the sun haven’t yet arisen. But only a few, heeded their call.
The image of the flagellant is something that stays in your mind, searing deep into one’s consciousness, ever present, like an apparition. I can’t just forget the sight: a starless and moonless night, the rather narrow streets illuminated with the yellowish glow of sodium lamps while people, albeit few, are going about their pre-dawn business. Some are tricycle drivers, smoking a few sticks of cigarette while chatting with fellow drivers while some are just lying on the top of their motorcycles, dozing off. The bakery is already well lighted, busy as the first batch of fresh pan de sal is finding its way to the glass display. Farther off the road, much less lighted, a lone figure, skirted with wilted banana leaves and hooded, is slowly trudging, hitting his back and bruising it. The click clacking breaks the silence as the flagellant turns left at a dim corner on his way to the church.
Continued from 
I came to this westerly town in the upper reaches of Quezon province, crossing the Sierra Madre to witness and document the flagellant-penitents. Unlike what one sees in most of Metro Manila and Central Luzon, those in Laguna wear skirts of dried banana leaves (but unfortunately, as what I saw in the Laguna towns like Pakil, Siniloan and Kalayaan, this practice is slowly disappearing). The ones in Infanta goes further: besides wearing these skirts, a floral headdress is donned, a stunning visual indeed!
A loudspeaker blares off from above and the people looking up sees the priest and his sacristans perched on a balcony. They head closer and a prayer starts. In a few moments, the priest initiates the blessing. The palaspas (palm fronds) are raised up, moved, swayed as people try to jostle to come closer. This is done about three times as those from the back moves in while the people at the center moves out to give them the opportunity to have thier palms blessed. The priest then steps down, the crowd goes back to their cordoned off places and in a few minutes the procession will start.
Domingo de Ramos or Palm Sunday, the biblical blessing of the palms marks Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem is also the start of the most solemn and significant celebration of Lent where from Sunday to the next Sunday the passion, death and resurrection of the much revered Christ is observed by Catholics worldwide. While the activity of the day is done in all Catholic parishes, I was in Paete since after the blessing, the ritual pagsusuob starts with the procession of the image from the church to the recamadero’s (caretaker) house where after a few days later the ritual proper is done.
