As we follow the Easter Season through the month of April through May, we can have a look at what Choleng Hidalgo wrote in the late 60’s about how our local folk observe the Lenten Season with acts of piety and traditional practices. She writes with the unfazed faith of the childlike colegiala with a sense of wonder! Her faith shines through!
EASTER THOUGHTS by Choleng D. Hidalgo – My Two Cents’ Worth
At last, the Lenten Season is over. The mournful chant of the Pasion has died away. In small towns where the sounds of civilization, motor horns and factory whistles have not yet drowned the sound of the “pabasa,” everything has quieted down and resumed its humdrum existence. It seems that the lower brackets of our society are more vocal in their observance of Lent. They save a little nest egg for just this occasion, usually as a thanksgiving for a favor received or as a propitiation for a favor still pending. Whichever it is, it is quite a festivity.
The Lenten Season opens with Ash Wednesday. We kneel down for the ash cross as a sign of humility. “Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.”
We follow the Holy Cross on its way to Calvary, and pray with the multitude…
We fast and abstain and we mortify ourselves… We make spiritual retreats…
Climax of the Lenten Season is Easter Sunday. The most beautiful morning of the year is the morning of the Resurrection. We wake up with a feeling of cleanliness, hope and expectation. We share the children’s sense of gladness and relief. After a week of sorrow when a pall seems to have settled over the earth, it is a joy to feel that Jesus is resurrected. We prepare ourselves to watch the 5-minute drama of the meeting of Jesus and Mary which never seems to lose its pathos year in and year out from our childhood to old age. We crane our necks to see it better, then the angel comes down, the dove flies, the pomegranate closes, and it is over so soon.
We shall wake up early again next year to see it all over again.
After a week filled up with church ceremonies, masses, communions, retreats, of watching the drama of the Passion of Christ, unfold and recreated during the Holy Week; after fasting, mortifications, flagellating…that make up the outward show of our religion, we look back and reflect on what this is all about.
Christ came into this world not only to redeem us, but also to show us the way to heaven, a way not strewn with roses, but with thorns, as symbolized in the way to Calvary. He told us parables which, read between the lines, give their true meaning, lessons of love, forgiveness, humility and understanding.
Have we in essence followed the teachings of Christ? Love thy neighbor as you love thyself. Leave thy riches and follow Me. Do unto others as you would like others do unto you. Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone.
POSTSCRIPT from Telly H. How
Not much has changed!
On my last trip to Naga last month, shortly before Holy Week, preparations for the observance were already in full swing. Families that had their family heirloom “santos” of our Lord Jesus and His mother, were already being readied with the rich garments as part of long-held practices. I had a chance to join my cousin in their family gathering in Canaman, a few years back, where there was a ritual on the proper cleaning and robing of these holy images. Even the carriage to be used for mounting the sacred icons, were already being outfitted for the processions. It was a family affair, complete with uniform clan T-shirts!
We had a chance to do our Visita Iglesia in Tinambac and three other old churches in Quipayo, Bombon and Calabanga. The Hinulid is a pilgrimage site in Calabanga. We completed our Visita in Naga, at the old Penafrancia shrine, at the Basilica, and at the Metropolitan Cathedral. We closed with the historical San Francisco Church established by the Franciscan missionaries in 1578, one of the oldest churches in the Philippines!
One custom that the author promoted was the Pasion, every year at the farm in Irayang Solong, Minalabac, where the singing of the biblical passages from Creation to the Passion of Christ, was sung in Bicol, continuously for about two days by batches, in relay. These were kept flowing through sustenance of food and “spirits” provided. We attempted to re-create the same a few times at our own setting in Balintawak by hiring professional singers who have sung these passages honed through the years.
One memorable feature we look forward to is the Easter morning “Tonton“ or “Encuentro” where the resurrected Jesus meets His mother at dawn. This is depicted in the Torre at the church grounds or town plaza with children garbed as angels with wings singing “Halleluia!” above the holy scene. One angel is brought down with a dove that she releases before she lifts up the veil from the Blessed Virgin. It’s hard to think of that Easter dawn without that memorable tableau.
The header photo shows an Easter “Salubong” scene in Pilar, Sorsogon (credit: BFP R5 Pilar Fire Station)
Contributed by:
TELLY HIDALGO HOW is a retired pediatrician and professor of pharmacology at the University of the Philippines, College of Medicine. Born and raised in Naga City, her parents were Dr. Jesus F Hidalgo, medical practitioner, and Soledad Dato Hidalgo, columnist and writer. She graduated from Colegio de Sta. Isabel, High School in 1965. She completed her medical degree from UP College of Medicine in 1974. She is an Emeritus Professor in UP.