Good Friday, Victoria Style

Good Friday in Victoria, Laguna has always been a spectacle to behold.

Nung araw kasi... yung Santo Sepulcro, isinasayaw iyan. Tapos ang nagyari, dumating sa puntong mga lasing na ang umaagaw sa Santo. Tapos kung saan saan nila dinadala -- sa Laguna Lake -- kasi liliguan daw -- para dumami ang huling isda. O kaya dun sa Lobo -- para daw madaming anihin. From revelry to downright sacrilegious. Yan ang nangyari sa amin. Kaya may ilang taon na ang nakakalipas, nag-utos ang obispo, walang prusisyon sa Biernes Santo. Hanggang matutong gumalang ulit ang mga taga-Victoria.

I was a small kid when this sacrilegious tradition began. My playmates would call the image "gire-gire", a local term for shaking. Because when the image is held by a mob of drunken men, it looks like its shaking. Maybe that is why I developed a ridiculous fear of that certain image of Christ. You see, before, when I was too young to join the Good Friday procession, when my Mom would see that the image is already approaching, she would bring me inside our yard and close the gates shut. And, just like our neighbors, we would watch the image pass by from afar.

Year after year, the incumbent Parish Priest would think of a way to prevent such actions. But they were all in vain. To prevent violence, they would just allow the mob to take the image wherever and would return it to the church with broken glasses, incomplete fingers and deranged flowers. This was the norm. Until the diocese decreed that the Good Friday procession is cancelled, until we learn to respect the sanctity of the tradition.

We didn't have Good Friday processions for years. Until our incumbent Parish Priest gave it a try two years ago. He had the image bolted to an elf truck, surrounded with barangay tanods and police. I have to admit that I was half expecting that the mob would carry even the elf truck to be able to run with the image again. They were unsuccessful.

That year, for the first time since I can remember, I was able to watch the procession without running inside the yard, afraid to be stepped on by a stampede of drunken men.

For the third straight year, we were able to have a peaceful Good Friday procession. I wasn't able to join because of tiredness from the 7palabras preparations. But of course, because I am omnipresent (is that a sacrilegious statement, too?), the pictures...