RedBlueThoughts

Last January 9, I saw hundreds of barefoot Filipinos walking towards Quiapo, an urban enclave in Manila. These were devotees of the Black Nazarene. Its the feast day of the centuries-old icon and devotees were doing their “panata”, literally translated as their religious vow.

The celebration lasted for a day. Police estimated about 100,000 people took part in the feast. Two persons died and scores were injured after a near stampede occurred. These incidents occurred during the high-point of the feast, when the icon was being paraded in-front of the crowd.

Such celebrations have been part of the religious life of the Filipino. Look at the calendar of an average Filipino and you’ll find that the entire year is punctuated by feasts of this and that saint. This is expected since the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country. Other Catholic countries have their own rituals and Saintly celebrations. But it is only in the Philippines where celebrating the feast days of the saints require some sacrifices, mostly involving either self-flagellations (like what happens during Holy Week) or some form of pilgrimage (like pilgrimages in Antipolo, Pangasinan or some shrine of the divine in some part of the country).

What is most interesting in all these is the way Filipinos view faith. Faith for the Filipino invokes some form of overt act before it can be considered faith. For example, the concept of worship for the Filipino involves going to church and praying before the icon of his choice. You can’t be considered religious if you don’t have an icon which you considered as your “patron saint” or if you don’t go to church.

If you think this only applies to Catholics, think again. Non-Catholics require some form of overt devotion before being considered as one of the faithful. Born-again Christians are required to give tithes. Members of the INC are also required to go to their church twice and offer a financial sacrifice every time they do so. Other religious groups do the same thing.

Going back, analyzing the behaviour of Black Nazarene devotees make you wonder why they have this near-fanatical devotion to the Mexican icon. What is it about the centuries-old statute that makes Filipinos skip their work just to be there themselves?

Some sociologists would argue that it could be that Filipinos find the Black Nazarene as some form of folk hero who helps them in times of trouble. That the Black Nazarene holds divine powers that would influence their fate or change their lives for the better. Devotion to some God can be viewed as escapism to others. I believe that this devotion to the Black Nazarene betrays the inner psyche of the Filipino, of this proto-Christian act as a semblance of the real and ancient religion of the Filipino.

I remember reading one book which analyzes Catholicism here as a form of indigenous Filipino interpretation of the Western religion. It could be that we saw the true and original religion of the indigenous Filipinos, this proto-Christian form of faith practised by indigenous Filipinos and handed down in a more acceptable yet modern form that is Catholicism.

For example, why are those devotees walking barefoot? I haven’t seen anything like it in other feast celebrations of other saints by Filipinos. Can it be that Quiapo was once an ancient pilgrimage site?

Or, probably, the Black Nazarene phenomenon is the Filipino’s form of Hajj? There are similarities, like walking barefoot and circumnavigating

the icon. Hajj pilgrims do the same. Muslims go around the Kaa’ba, just like what Black Nazarene devotees do.

I recognize the sacrilegious nature of these words, but seeing this yearly celebration makes me wonder.

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