Paete | Rough Groove

Semana Santa 06: Paete and Pakil processions

May 8th, 2006 | 1 Comment

Holy Wednesday and office hours was only until noon. Good thing so that those who will be going home to the provinces had ample time to prepare. Me on the other hand was dashing back to the condo to gather my things and camera and went to the Buendia LRT station to catch a bus going to Sta. Cruz, Laguna for the procession in Paete. Expectedly, the bus was full but I was still able to get a seat.

1600H and I was already at Paete. I met with Jayson Macea and his friends who were already at the church. When I entered, I was just amazed at the number and variety of the carrozas (carriages) bearing the different images for the Lenten procession. Life sized images, beautifully garbed and lifelike, new or antique. Paete is famous for its carvers. Most people from the surrounding provinces often go to this area to have their santo/imahen carved or repaired. This is also the place where the master builder of the beautiful church of Morong in Rizal province comes from. Well Holy Wednesday and Good Friday in Laguna are traditional days for processions. In my hometown, it was usually Tuesday and Friday. In Lucban, it was just recently that the procession is limited on Good Friday. Probably a boon to families owning the processional images since they will only be doing a single expense instead of for two processions.

The procession at Paete would still start at 1900H and we can’t just wait for it since we’ll still be going to Lucban and have to catch the last minibus for the trip. Anyway, after admiring and taking photos of the images of Paete, we went to Pakil. The images there are quite small but it was here that I was able to catch a view of flagellants. We didn’t linger much and immediately went to Pagsanjan to catch the minibus. Along the way, various towns like also had there procession.

In Paete, Laguna.

Left, the Mater Dolorosa, an antique image which was carved in 1882 by the famed Paeteno, Mariano Madrinan. Right, the Veronica image carved in 1883 by Clemente Cadomigara. What’s interesting about this image is that this has movable hands that are controlled under the carroza.

Left, the impressive carrozas occupying all the space in the church of Paete. One has a feeling of going around an exhibit while walking along the images. There were more than 50 images for the procession.

Right, the two carrozas in Pagsanjan after the procession placed inside the church.