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==[[Marinduque News]]==
==[[Marinduque News]]==
'''Holy Week celebrations around the world''''
'''Bishop: Palm Sunday no April Fool’s joke''''
*Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/columnist1/20339-holy-week-celebrations-around-the-world
*Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/170201/bishop-palm-sunday-no-april-fools-joke
*Saturday, March 31, 2012
*2:01 am | Sunday, April 1st, 2012
:by : Atty. Dodo Dula
:by : Jerome Aning
Philipine Daily Inquirer




Tomorrow, Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. Lasting until Easter Sunday, the Holy Week will see millions of Filipinos trooping to churches and observing the rituals associated with this important religious event.  
Roman Catholic Filipinos should mark Palm Sunday, with piety and contemplation on the Passion of Jesus Christ and not with superstitious beliefs, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Saturday.
Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III, CBCP media office director, said Palm Sunday, which coincides with the observance of April Fool’s Day, should not be marked with pranks and jokes.
“We should not deviate [from the message of Palm Sunday] and not focus on superstitious and pagan practices,” Quitorio said.
April Fool’s Day is said to have its origins in the ancient Roman festival of Hilaria and in the Festival of Fools in the Middle Ages, where people played pranks on others and indulged in foolishness.
Pranksters are also active on Holy Innocents’ Day in December.
For Quitorio, the belief that the palm fronds (palaspas) blessed on Palm Sunday can ward off evil spirits and lightning strikes are examples of Fool’s Day foolishness that should be discarded.
“A person becomes a fool if his being a Christian is reduced to becoming superstitious,” Quitorio said. “Our concentration should be on [the Palm Sunday] Mass, on the gospel about the Passion of Christ. We should not veer away from it.”
Quitorio said the palaspas has only one symbolic meaning: “To welcome Christ as He enters Jerusalem and into the will of God.”
The Church, Quitorio said, is partly to blame for the persistent superstitious beliefs about the palaspas.
“Maybe [the people] think that way because of the Church’s failure to catechize [them],” Quitorio said. “So I think there is really a need for parish priests to teach the people … to understand its real meaning.”
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, CBCP president, called on Catholics on Saturday to commemorate “the important mysteries of our faith” with the start of the Holy Week.
“Let us have time to participate, especially in the many important and significant activities of the Church like Palm Sunday, the Paschal Triduum, Chrism Mass, Last Supper Mass, the Seven Last Words and Easter,” Palma said in an interview over church-run Radio Veritas.
“If others are thinking about going on vacation—and it’s true that we need to have rest from work—I [hope] they can still participate in the celebrations of the Church [this Holy Week],” Palma said. “We should pray to have renewal in our country. Let us pray that we can improve.”


There is the Palm Sunday Mass, where devotees bring palaspas (palm leaves) to be blessed by the priest. After the service, the palm leaves are taken home and placed above doorways and
Too much partying
windows to ward off evil spirits.
Marinduque Bishop Rey Evangelista called on the youth not to forget the meaning of Holy Week as he discouraged them from too much partying.
 
“Our Holy Week gatherings should not be for fun but for prayer and contemplation,” Evangelista said.
There is also the pabasa – a non-stop chant of Jesus’ life, passion and death over blaring speakers. In my hometown in Malabon City, the pabasa begins right after Ash Wednesday, initially in a low tone and gradually rising in volume as the Holy Week approaches until it reaches a deafening crescendo – and ends – on Maundy Thursday.  
Also on Saturday, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, chairman of the CBCP’s National Secretariat for Social Action, called on the faithful to donate to Alay Kapwa Sunday, which also coincides with Palm Sunday.
 
The Alay Kapwa (offering to one’s neighbor) Sunday is the culmination of the Lenten evangelization program of the Church that aims to raise social consciousness about the plight of the poor. This year’s proceeds will be used as emergency fund for the poor who have been affected by natural and man-made calamities.
On Maundy Thursday, Filipino families will be doing the visita iglesia, the pilgrimage to seven – and for some, fourteen – churches to recite the Stations of the Cross. Good Friday sees street processions of bleeding flagellants and cross-carrying penitents, and in some places like Bulacan and Pampanga, a re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus where people are nailed to the cross for real.
“They may donate their time or talent. There are a lot of people in need of help. That has been the call of Alay Kapwa, for [the faithful] to share their time, talent and treasure,” Pabillo also said.
 
No to crucifixions
But if you think it’s only Filipinos who have strange Holy Week rituals and customs, think again.
Palma reiterated the Church’s opposition to crucifixions on Good Friday, which some Catholic devotees, particularly in Pampanga province, continue to practice.
 
“While we are trying to discourage these practices, we could also not judge the intention of some devotees,” Palma said. “They have different vows, which, if they cannot fulfill them, [make them] feel very guilty. But the challenge really is, you do not have to [be], if your participation [in Holy Week rites] is really solemn and wholehearted.”
Also on Maundy Thursday but in another part of the world, residents of the town of Verges in Gerona, Spain celebrate the “La Dansa de la Muerte” or the Dance of Death – a night time macabre dance performed by men dressed as skeletons to symbolize the equality of all men before the Final Judgment.
Palma added: “It’s not so much the external manifestation of and identification with the Christ. It’s internal—the change of heart, the change of life. This, I wish, is the beautiful thing that we should do, not on the physical but more in the spirit. We do not judge and condemn, but we discourage it.”
 
Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of Pampanga and retired Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani have similar observations.
In Spain, many other towns and cities commemorate the Holy Week with processions of large elaborate floats or “tronos” paraded through the streets at night, each with different themes portraying the last days before Christ’s crucifixion or Bible scenes. These floats, some weighing over 3,000 kilograms, are carried on the shoulders by some forty to fifty men called “costaleros” in a march lasting up to eight hours while being followed by members of religious brotherhoods wearing – for anonymity – pointed hats with a cloth mask, a robe and a cloak, an attire many people say is eerily similar to those worn by the Ku Klux Clan.
Aniceto said the body is a gift from God and should be taken care of, not tortured by crucifixion. He observed that the Good Friday crucifixions had become commercialized and turned into tourist attractions.
 
“The self-flagellations and crucifixions must be stopped,” Bacani said. “Caring for each other, doing good deeds is the best restitution [for sins],” Bacani said.
In the town of Murcia, a “tronos” telling the story of the Last Supper has real food on the table. On Easter Sunday, the twenty-six men who carried the “tronos” around town get to sit down at the table and eat the food!
 
Across neighboring Italy, mystery plays are performed throughout towns and cities. Similar to the Moriones Festival in Marinduque, a mystery play is a kind of opera – a sacred opera – performed during Holy Week outside of churches or in the village square, with actors, dancers and props, just like a real opera. After the mystery plays and a solemn mass, a long parade of women dressed in black mourning clothes carry the statue of the Virgin Mary from the church through old-town streets lit only by candles and lamps.
 
In the South American continent, a different slant to the religious rituals occur on Good Friday when residents of Tarma, Peru, throw abstinence out the window. Instead, participants feast on twelve traditional dishes, from soups, fish, potato dishes to desserts. Again on Easter Sunday, celebrating with food ends the Semana Santa celebrations.
 
Following the gloomy rites of Good Friday, Saturday takes on an entirely different tone in the town of Ayacucho, Peru. An open air market with crafts, food and music draws a huge crowd who enjoy chicha or chacta with a chew of coca leaves. There is a traditional belief in Ayacucho that since Christ is dead and has not yet risen, there is no such thing as a sin.
 
Consequently, participants in Ayacucho’s Holy Week celebrations use this time to party and behave as they please until Easter Sunday’s resurrection ceremonies.
 
Worshipping the popular symbols of Easter is a popular custom in Brazil. The “macela” flower, which blooms only during Lent, is worshipped by the devotees. On Palm Sunday, people would bring the flower to the church service to receive the blessings of the priest. The flower is later on used as a herb which is believed to cure many diseases.
 
In Popayan, Colombia, the drama of Christ’s crucifixion is re-enacted on Good Friday – but without anyone really being crucified. Instead, a group of men use hammers, chisels, and other tools to symbolically remove the image of Christ from the crucifix and then lay in the Holy Tomb made of ivory and tortoise shell.
 
However Christians around the world observe Holy Week, what is clear is that we are all united by our devotion to commemorate and reflect upon the suffering, death and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ. A safe and blessed Holy Week to everyone.


==[[:Category:Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery|Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery]]==
==[[:Category:Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery|Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery]]==
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