Holy Week in the Philippines - Flagellants

Celebrating Holy Week is just as huge as celebrating Christmas here in the Philippines.

The Philippines is the only so-called "Catholic country" in the Southeast Asia. 80% of the Filipinos are Roman Catholics, thus, most Filipinos believe that by doing penitents and sacrifices, their sins would be lessened, if not, erased. Catholics do not eat chicken, pork or beef at this time of year. They eat vegetables and fish only.

For those who do not know, the Holy Week in the Philippines is very bloody also... There are certain rituals which they think could be the solution to cleanse their sins. Mostly, male Filipinos do this because it was handed down to us from generations to generations. My father once did this gory ritual. And the ritual I am referring to was the "Flagging of oneself". In our province in Bulacan, it is called "Hampas Dugo" or Spank Blood.

I was only 6 years old when my father decided to underwent this penitence in our province. I cried and told my father not to do it, but then, he insisted saying that this procedure could "make him clean" of his "original sins" and "mortal sins". As a Roman Catholic then also, my mother didn't object.

I was really puzzled as to why should a person hurt himself so that his sins would be forgiven by God.

As my father was walking on the streets barefooted, with a white cloth covering his face, his back was very sore and bloodied. Prior to that, a man wounded my father's back with a sharp object so that blood could ooze from his back. I did not get to see this and I did not want to. My father was holding a rope and at the end of the rope was 24pieces of thick bamboo chips, and he used these to flag himself on his back, where his wounds were! I could not bear to look at what he was doing to himself and so I ran inside my grandmother's house.

It took him 2 hours to round the village with his fellow flagellants. And after showing the village what they had done to themselves, they ran to the nearest river and they took a bath there.

I did not stop crying until I saw him feeling relaxed, inside the house of my grandma. My sister taunted and laughed at me saying that I was such a crybaby and coward.

My father narrated that at first, when he flagged himself, the wound hurt so much but as time passed, it did not hurt anymore because it became numb already. He did this sacrifice only once, but I guess, some of his other "co-flagellants" still do this every Holy Week.

Up to now, the scars on his back are still visible.

Photo courtesy of Joleng