Beat yourself bloody... for a cause and other Angeles City, Philippines Local Custom Tips

Flagellants scourge themselves with ropes tipped with glass rods designed to eat away at their bare backs as they walk barefoot under the hot summer sun. City of Angels magazine states they "do this as a means of atoned for their sins. It is a sort of retribution of their offenses and human weaknesses for past favor such as after going through some crisis or danger in their lives."

But so many young kids get into miming their elders that one wonders whether this isn't just some sort of stunt or rite of passage for the people of San Pedro.

WARNING: real blood does splatter onlookers. In these time of dangerous blood-borne diseases, please take precautions.

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Website: http://asiabill.pages.web.com/id11.html

The 3 kilometer Via Cruces (way of the Crosses) re-enacts the path Christ took on the way to the crucifixion. The event’s intent is to invoke for the faithful Christ’s passion that ended his worldly journey in pain and suffering while the faithful pray for days straight over loudspeakers in the surrounding Cutud area neighborhoods.

The individuals that participate may have any response from religious to amusement to shock to commercial opportunism. The event is surrounded by locals, Filipino and international tourists as well as hawkers of all kinds of services… the water sellers were particularly welcome in the scorching hot day.

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Several people dressed in simple robes knelt before the cross and variously prayed in silence, shouted to the heavens, covered themselves with dust or raised arms. These acolytes didn't seem bent on the same kind of self-destruction evident among others and their religious fervor seemed sincere.

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Penitents portraying fellow crucified are roped to the cross by Filipinos in Roman garb. As each are hoisted aloft, one of the Roman spear-bearers reenacted cutting their victims. When “Jesus” was getting ready to be crucified, older “Romans” doused his hands with alcohol and carefully placed the nails for his hands. A single pop from the hammer set the nail in the flesh, drawing blood and a wince of pain.

Roman officials hoisted the cross aloft for the crowd to see. They reenact the stabbing with spears of the crucified. What must have been agonizing minutes later, the victims were released by either returning the cross down to horizontal or by being wound in swaddling and lowered gently.

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After the main event, the open field cleared fairly quickly except for the most dedicated adherents. Some of these, garbed as nuns seemed to meditate on the meaning of the day and those recently crucified sought medical treatment for their wounds. A second group of crucified also had their turn at the cross, while many of the local tourists also laid down for a photo opportunity.

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