The San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites is a Holy Week re-enactment of Christ’s Passion and Death which takes place in Barangay San Pedro Cutud, City of San Fernando, Pampanga in the Philippines … This year, Pampanga carpenter Ruben Enage, 47, was nailed to the cross for the 22nd time, since his first in 1985 … the guy was in some serious pain! …
There were also 25 other penitents, including two women, which were nailed on the wooden cross on Good Friday in San Pedro Cutud …and in Central Luzon, crucifixion reenactments were also held in Angeles City, Sto. Tomas, Pampanga, and in Bulacan … had I known this, then I would have gone to one of the less crowded venues … would I do it again “NO WAY JOSE!” … though I do recommend as a “once in a lifetime” … as bizarre as it is … it is a culture and it “is what it is” …
The trip began Thursday morning, driving out of Alabang with an arranged home stay with the Magtalas family (fantastic family) in Arayat … on arrival, they had beer on ice and cooked up a serious lunch …
Thursday afternoon we went to Angeles City for beer and sights … though the agenda was photographing the activities … Angeles City is the “sin city” of the Philippines … you name it, they got it … a great time to be had is drinking cold beer at one of the sidewalk beer joints as you watch the “sane” and “insane” pass you by … this is a great town!
Friday morning off to San Pedro … the procession began at 3:00pm … so we get there early such as we could get a good vantage point … well mission accomplished on the vantage point, though we had to stand there for four (4) hours … talking about miserable fun it was indeed … this place was packed … a sea of hot, sweaty, smelly flesh … packed so tight you could hardly move to take pictures … the take on the day was walking back to the car … I was in desperate need of a beer … found this little store, had my San Mig iced down … sat there for several hours longer than I should have … wound up being the Chief of Polices store …
Then on completion of drinking the San Pedro Chief of Police out of his beer we drove on into San Fernando and found they were having an All Saints Parade … it was near over when we arrived, had a few to many beers, but was able to pull off some shots worth keeping …
NOTES: Drag Cursor on Map to Pan (some points may be hidden out of view) … Mouse over Map Points for more Information … If there is a (red color) circle with a numerical value inside, this means there are “stacked” Map Points, select and the “stacked map points” will be revealed … select Aerial for a Satellite view and Hybrid for Road View superimposed onto a Satellite view …
Here is a video on the flagellation ”ordeal”, which lays the whole process out, at least the flagellation part of it … they cover their face to hide their identity, some of the folks are doctors, lawyers, etc … anyways, something to see … would I do it again, no way … to many people, to damm hot, etc …
