Читать книгу Exciting Philippines - Elizabeth V. Reyes - Страница 7

a bastion of christianity

Baguio’s pink cathedral has risen again from the ashes of the 1990 Luzon earthquake.

A lone padre walks the halls of ancient San Augustin Church in Intramuros.

Centuries of Spanish colonization and a native love of harvest rituals have left the country with “earthquake baroque” stone churches and a bounty of colorful fiestas.

tHE PHILIPPINES is the only predominantly Christian nation in Asia. Eighty percent Roman Catholic and traditionally pious, Filipinos live in a world of parish priests, nuns, cardinals and patron saints who are revered in households through painted wooden santos. The Virgin Mary (called Mama Mary) is the standard bearer of Filipino Catholicism around Luzon, while the Santo Niño (the Child Jesus), in ermine cloak and golden crown, is everyone’s favorite holy babe in the Visayas.

The Moriones Festival portrays Christ’s crucifixion by the Romans.

Mother Mary prays for us near the Bantay belltower of Vigan.

tHE LEGACY of three centuries of Spanish colonization manifests itself among the oldest Catholic churches of the country. From ancient San Agustin Church with its carved doors and Chinese fu lions to fine painted ceilings in medieval Intramuros to Ilocandia up north, where the heavyset “earthquake baroque” churches of Paoay, Santa Maria and Santa Lucia stand.

While the family kinship system binds together the country’s 81 provinces, it is Catholicism, the common religion and social glue, that underlines the lifestyle—especially at fiesta time. Secular harvest feasts merge with Christian worship as in the Feast of the Santo Nino, and the Visayans celebrate dancing fiestas such as the Ati-Atihan of Kalibo, Sinulog of Cebu and Dinagyang of Iloilo. During Eastertime or Holy Week, the island of Marinduque presents the dramatic spectacle of the Moriones Festival, reenacting the miraculous conversion of the Biblical legionnaire Longinus. Quezon’s Pahiyas or “Harvest Offering” honors San Isidro de Labrador, patron saint of farmers; homes are decorated with fruits of the harvest and colored rice wafers called kiping.

Magellan’s Cross planted Catholicism in the center of Cebu in 1517.

Blessed is the sleeping babe among the Mama Marys and Santo Niños.

Lighting votive candles in a Baclaran church on Wednesdays.

Candlelit procession of “La Naval” from Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.

Stark and spare San Joaquin Church in isolated Batanes, northernmost islands of the Philippines.