Live Crucifixions on Good Friday

Note: In this entry, I am sharing about a Filipino tradition that can be seen as quite gruesome. Please use your best judgment if reading this with your children.

The Easter season is celebrated very differently in the Philippines. For instance, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are national holidays, and there is a lot of ritualism tied into celebrations that are held on these days.

Larry and I decided to check out one of the more famous Good Friday celebrations in the town of San Fernando, which is about one hour north of Manila. We arrived in San Fernando around 9:00AM, and we saw some penitents preparing for their march around town. (During this occasion, a penitent is a person who thinks that God will listen to his prayers if he intentionally whips himself.) They all filed into the street, and began whipping themselves with wooden sticks attached to the end of long ropes. I had read that shards of glass are implanted in the whips, but after accidentally getting hit by one, I saw that this was not true. (Thankfully!)

So, rather than scourging themselves, the bleeding actually came from small incisions that were made in the penitents' backs by a man who carried what looks like a hairbrush embedded with glass. The whipping seemed to keep the blood flowing, with an after-effect of slinging blood into the crowds.

Halfway through the procession, each of the penitents laid belly down on the ground, and allowed the bystanders to hit them on the backs with sticks. Oddly, you would think that this would be a somber occasion, but it was truly a festival. One lady was hitting one of the men with a stick, and the she looked up at me and said, "Come! Take a picture of my brother!"

The main event was the crucifixion that took place at 1:00PM. Again, believing that God would hear their prayers if they actually suffered like Jesus did, about 11 men were willfully nailed to crosses. They hung there for about 5 minutes before they were lowered down and carried off by medical teams.

After the crucifixions had finished, a guy standing next to me asked what I thought. I said, "I don't understand why they do this. This event uses the symbols of Christianity, but the Bible does not say that we must do things like this for God to hear us."

He thought for a moment and replied, "You're right."