Holy Week

Easter in the Philippines is one of the most culturally interesting times you will ever experience.

One of the defining elements is “panata” which means to take a vow or make a promise. Take for instance the “pabasa”, my land lady made a “panata” to do “pabasa” at her house every year. But there are plenty of other “panatas” that people make. The most famous of all are “penitensya” and “crucifixion”. Take for instance the story I saw of a guy who made a “panata” because God saved his wife and child during a complicated delivery. He made a promise to put small incisions in his back then whip it with pieces of bamboo whilst walking 15 kms and then crucify himself with real nails in his hands the following day for as long as he could every year for 15 years. Some people may question the sanity of such people or just view it as a spectacle, but after watching the video I was struck by the guy’s willingness to follow through with such a difficult promise.

In addition to this people buy, sell and wave palm branches everywhere on Palm Sunday. It’s quite a business here. And on Thursday and Friday literally everything stops in Manila, even the malls. It’s the best time of year to drive around the city because no one is on the roads! I didn’t get to see it but apparently in the province of Marinduque people dress up in masks and act out a traditional Filipino Catholic story of trying to find a Roman soldier trying to hide from the authorities.

Yep, Easter in the Philippines is certainly interesting.

Pabasa

One night just before Easter I arrived home to my new house to find that it had been invaded by relatives of the Filipino family I live with. Every year my Ate Beth has a “pabasa” which is a “reading” of “the passion” at her house. The Pasyon is biblical and traditional stories about the last week of Jesus before his crucifixion in Tagalog. It sounds pretty tame doesn’t it. Well, I can assure you it is not. They sing, chant and read The Pasyon for almost 24 hours straight using a microphone set at the highest volume possible. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night!

Haircut hilarities

One of the exciting things about living in a foreign country is the new and exciting surprises and challenges that you face every day which you would not think twice about back home. Like getting your haircut for example. When I first got here I went and got my head shaved because I just couldn’t be bothered getting it cut often and the fact that it is incredibly hot here all year round. That was all well and good until I realized that a skinhead means that sweat runs instead of drips off you. So after my hair had grown to an unmanageable length I decided to get a decent haircut. I went to a nice hairdresser that costs about $5AUD which is kind of expensive here. But I figured that I would get what I paid for. I was wrong! I got a new hairdresser that could hardly speak English. Add to that the fact that I had no Tagalog terminology for how to cut my hair. So after 30 minutes of trying to get it right I just gave up and walked out of the shop with a very strange looking haircut indeed. Next time I figured that it couldn’t be as bad as the last time so I just went to a corner shop the night before leaving for Bangkok. This time the haircut was okay and only cost me $1.50AUD, but what happened while I was waiting was truly hilarious. An older Korean businessman was in getting his haircut. But the problem was that he didn’t know any English or Tagalog (or wouldn’t speak it, I’m not too sure) and the people in the shop couldn’t understand what he wanted or how to communicate with him. He wanted a “sports cut” which is supposed to be a little different than a “flat top”. I still don’t know what the difference is though. They both looked the same to me by the time it was all sorted out. But watching the people was so funny, particularly when it got animated. I couldn’t help but laugh. And then when I started laughing everyone else in the shop except for the poor Korean guy did. Eventually it was all sorted out when his companion was found outside somewhere, but I must say that I felt much better about getting my haircut in the Philippines after that.