Crucifixions and fiestas on the island of Guimaras

Crucifixions and Fiestas on the island of Guimaras

14th April 2007

Guimaras is a nice little island not far away from where I live in Dumangas. I visited Guimaras several times (see here) on my first visit to the Philippines. I like Guimaras.

Reza was kind enough to invite me along on a trip to Guimaras with a bunch of other people. We stayed with her sister and attended a local fiesta where were ate (and ate and ate), drank, talked and danced the night away. All quite lovely.

On the other side of the island however was a "tourist" event that I did not want to attend. Not in a million years.

With it being Easter time and with the Philippines being a predominantly Catholic country, there are a million-and-one religious events happening. Just the other day for example, there was two parades with beautifully adorned floats circulating the town center of Dumangas. Why two? Heaven forbid that the Catholics and Protestants work together on something.

On Guimaras though, they like to do things a little bit different. Every year some poor bastard volunteers to be crucified. They don't tie him to the cross with ropes. No no. That would be merely dumb. They physically drive nails into his hands and feet and prop him up on a cross.

I've been trying to work out why they would do such a thing.

There are two ways of looking at it: A religious way and a non-religious way.

Let us first take the religious view and assume that everything the Bible says is true, and that Christ was sacrificed on a cross for all of our sins. Let us also assume that Poor Bastard and his crucifiers are not doing it just for kicks and there is some purpose to it, some greater good is attained. In this context, I can only come up with two reasons why they might do such a thing.

Guilt
For the mainly Catholic audience, this would be a great chance to feel guilty (which is something Catholics excel at).

"Look at 'Christ' up there! Do you feel guilty yet?! Well do ya?!"
Evangelism
Maybe this was designed to emphasis just how much Christ suffered for us. The unwashed masses who were watching (it was televised on the local TV channels) should presumably be very moved and somehow become followers of Christ.

One wonders how many people went away with the idea that the Church is in habit of torturing its followers.

"Come join the church. You too can be crucified."

From a non-religious point of view, there is no excusing such barbaric behavior.

Guilt, misguided evangelism or barbaric. Take your pick.

I expressed my disgust about the event to several people. One guy replied, "You can't hassle that. It's my religion."

A dumb idea is a dumb idea, regardless of your religion.

Do you like the work that I am doing?

Wanna help in a real and tangible way?

Then visit GrassRootsUganda.com and purchase some crafts made by Ugandan ladies. 100% of the profits are returned to the ladies

Questions? Comments? Try contacting me.
Wanna receive an email whenever this site gets updated? Click here.

(c) 2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.