CUTUD PAMPANGA LENTEN RITES : recalling my first maleldo experience

It's again HOLY WEEK in the Philippines and people including myself are either busy queuing in transportation terminals or are yet to make up their minds where to go or what to do. My friends has been sending invitation in facebook to go to CUTUD PAMPANGA this Friday to witness Maleldo 2011.

Cutud is very famous during Holy Week, not just in the Philippines but all over the world as it is the place where penitents reenacts the Passion of Christ every good Friday which culminates in the actual nailing on the cross. I was in Cutud last year and I witnessed these Lenten Rites myself......

imitation of mount Calvary

The whole thing was not planned. I recall just visiting our friend, Ariel, who lives in Mabalacat Pampanga. My resolve to go here was not that strong, after all, I am one who has low tolerance to pain. The mere sight of suffering even in television makes me very uncomfortable. But since Ariel is the type who would easily grant your request and he said yes at my first mention of it, there, no turning back.

Using his families car, we drove to CUTUD, just a few kilometers from San Fernando Pampanga and there, experience my first Holy Week, hard core style!!!

Since, its a very popular place during Holy Week, it's really crowded. If you have plans of going there this year, I would suggest you go early. We arrived at around 11am and parked around 2 kilometers from the main site because its literally impossible to get through the crowd and the long queue of cars parked along the way.

You have to sweat it out in short. But that's nothing compared to the sight you see along the way, from time to time, you would see topless men  flagellate themselves using bamboo sticks tied to a rope. This alone already made me uneasy.


But that's not all. The culmination of the rites would be the actual nailing on the cross of some penitents which is a reenactment of the Passion and Death of Christ on the cross.

yes, for real, they use inches nails!!! One can actually go close to the penitents and see it yourself. Teresa and Ariel  saw it all while I was on the sides busy ridding myself of the dust caused by the crowd coming in and out of the site. I was a few meters away blending in the crowd. Shame, I didn't have enough courage to even look for a  few seconds.

crucifixion reenactments in Cutud Pampanga

I said it in my post last year about Maleldo 2010, I admire these people who go this far so as to express their faith and show their devotion to the church. I still hold that true to my heart, but I wanna add that I sometimes think its not necessary to go this extreme.Good thing ambulances await these penitents and so far, nobody has died for doing it. 

Holy Week in the Philippines is indeed passionate and colorful. The LENTEN RITES in Barangay San Pedro CUTUD San Fernando Pampanga is one proof of this.

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HOLY WEEK in the PHILIPPINES here

PS: all the photos were taken by my friend Ariel using his Nikon dslr camera. I only watermarked them to indicate that I published them in my blog.