Visita Iglesia

Left, St. James' Cathedral, Santiago de Compostela
Below, Nuestra Senora del Pilar, Zaragoza

If one is doing the Visita Iglesia, he is expected to visit at least seven churches and up to a maximum of fourteen. What is Visita Iglesia?

Visita Iglesia is another old Lenten tradition in the Philippines. It takes place on the Maundy Thursday of the Semana Santa (Holy Week). As tradition has it, Visita Iglesia commences at sunset and ends in the early hours of Good Friday.

In the area in Mandaluyong where I grew up, there are two churches: the Roman Catholic Church of San Felipe Neri, and the Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan). These two churches shared somewhat similar religious practises and rituals, and so during the Semana Santa, such similarities gave rise to minor discomfort among the many residents who lived within the two parishes. Here, I am talking about the scheduling of the procession, and no other.

So as not to create a traffic disaster and an issue, which we kids, called "harangan" (cutting of, as in bad driving) the two churches decided to hold Holy Week processions on two different days. One, I think the Catholics, had theirs on a Wednesday and the Aglipays, on a Thursday. But , of course, on Good Friday, both churches held their respective procession on the same evening.

We kids considered these two processions as a competition. It was normal for us to hear murmurs among the crowd - those bystanders - giving their two-cent worth opinion as to which among the two churches had the better "carosas" or statues.

A Lola (grand aunt) of ours had a Santa Veronica in these processions and a maternal grand uncle owned the Magdalena. So a few hours before dusk, the people living in our street would be enthralled by the passing of these two saints, clad in their best colorful outfit and with hair as silky as the moon and as yellow as the sun - riding high on their ornate "carosas" and leaving behind the scent of sampaguita, ylang ylang and champaca.

Once the procession left the church, we scrambled and picked which saint to follow. Me and my siblings always followed Veronica; but sometimes, we trailed also Magdalena, especially if the scent of the "karburo," the chemical which powered the lights of Veronica, started to bother our nostrils.

For us, the Visita Iglesia started after the procession had ended. Next to our church, we would visit the Santa Ana Church, and sometimes, we went as far as the San Miguel Church which is located near the Malacanang Palace.

Sadly, the practise of Visita Iglesia is not observed in North America. Here in Canada, the Maundy Thursday church service is celebrated in the evening, unlike in the Philippines where it takes place in the morning. Thus, our Maundy Thursday service is held at seven and as it is celebrated throughout the whole Christendom, consists of the commemoration of the Lord's Last Supper.

And unlike also in the Philippines, we start our long Easter weekend, not on Holy Wednesday, but on Good Friday. Offices are closed on Good Friday and for most, returning to work is on the following Tuesday.

This post was originally posted in my other blog: www.luckycanary.blogspot.com

Pabasa - A Lenten Ritual in the Philippines

One happy memory of my childhood is the annual Pabasa ng Pasyon. Pabasa, an oral remembrance/recitation/singing of the passion of Christ and is one of the most unique and valued ways the Filipinos observe Lent. It usually takes place during the Semana Santa (Holy Week).

Here in Toronto, Canada, a Pabasa is held by the Filipino Chaplaincy/Mission. The chaplaincy which used to be housed at the Blessed John XXIII church was later transferred to the Our Lady of Assumption Church in Bathurst.

In our extended family, once you learned how to read you immediately became a member of the singing group.

Our Pabasa was hosted by our maternal Grand Aunt, who was fondly called Lola Ebya (Eusebia). It was held for many years in her grandiose house in Santa Ana, in a section of the house resembling a small chapel.

It housed life-sized statues and icons of several saints and patrons which included a Santa Veronica, which participated in the yearly processions of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and I believe, the Easter dawn-Salubong.

My Lola’s pabasa was always held on a Holy Monday. It would start in the early evening or mid-afternoon and finish the following day at three in the afternoon. So it meant continuous singing of verses describing the life, suffering and death of Christ. This continuous singing also meant non-stop eating. The singers and participants had to be fed; if not, like the canaries, their voices would weaken.

My Lola’s pabasa was usually attended by relatives, friends and members of the church which we attended. I distinctly remember one singer, an old woman named Aling Gundina, whose voice was opera-sounding and we, kids looked forward to imitating her after the pabasa had ended.

The food for these pabasas consisted of fiesta-like dishes, but what I loved most was the lumpiang sariwa (fresh vegetable roll) with lots of minced garlic and the suman sa lihiya, a native dessert of sweet glutinous rice wrapped in green banana leaves; such food and kakanins prepared out of the large kusina by old ladies who would not let you in.

My mother and two aunts had fairly good pabasa voices. And one uncle in-law could wow the crowd with his Cenon Lagman voice. But we, young ones would be sitting at the back of the room, boldly singing, only as soon as the crowd had thinned, usually in those hours after lunch and early hours of Holy Tuesday.

Back then, the use of microphones and loud speakers was unknown. But with participants honed over the years in the pabasa-style singing, the need for these equipment did not exist. It was usual to have various mini-sections in the big singing group, who would compete in the singing; some would intentionally prolong singing some words and phrases, and some would abruptly switch to another tono (tune) to catch the attention of the large crowd or to simply awaken those who were ready to fall asleep.

At home, my mother would start her own basa ng pasyon as soon as Cuaresma (Lent) commenced on Ash Wednesday, and we all had to participate at various days and times, to enable the family to finish the whole book, by Good Friday.

Today, I am quite sure that my mother is softly singing the Pasyon in the privacy of her room in the Philippines. She no longer goes to the official basahan ng pasyon as her eyesight is no longer as sharp as before, and alas, some apos (grandchildren) have lost touch with a beautiful Philippine Christian tradition.

Posted by Gener Fajardo Pagkanlungan at 8:16 AM