I've written about my boyhood memories of Good Friday including the times when we spent the Holy Week in my father's hometown in Cabatuan, Iloilo. The last two years have been spent mostly at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic though last year I recall we were already able to take our daily walks around the neighborhood. I also remember that we had started getting vaccinated around this time last year so hopes were high.
We decided to stay at home again this year despite Rizal and Metro Manila being on Alert Level 1. The latter meant people could basically go out and travel wherever they wanted to as long as you have proof of vaccination and practice the minimum health protocols such as wearing a mask. We had talked about doing a Visita Iglesia but relented as we thought perhaps many other people were going to do this after two straight years of being confined to their homes.
There was no official Alay Lakad this year, the third straight year there won't be an "official" one. I put official in quotation marks as there really is no stopping devotees or those with panata (vow) with Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage (Virgen de Antipolo). True enough, there were many people who walked from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to the Antipolo Shrine and there are many evidence of this from social media posts in the area. The numbers probably weren't in the millions that was pre-Covid-19 but it was a sizeable crowd that triggered comments about its being a potential super spreader event.
Perhaps a winner this Holy Week, if you can call it that, are businesses. Unlike the Holy Weeks of old, malls, supermarkets, shops and restaurants are mostly open this stretch of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday. I have memories of the times when most establishments were closed during these days. In the provinces, there were eateries, stores or stalls open because there was demand (i.e., people including tourists going around) but the malls and supermarkets were generally closed. Eventually, Black Saturdays became exceptions as people prepared for their Easter celebrations. Next it was Maundy Thursdays. Finally, commerce got to Good Fridays starting with the large fastfood chains opening their branches to feed the people going around (e.g., doing Visita Iglesia). At first, the justification for this was that not everyone was Catholic and so they could deploy non-Catholic staff to man their operations. Of course, we know that was BS (pardon for the term here) but everyone seemed to welcome this development. People needed to eat despite these days supposed to be for fasting and abstinence. So much for that part of religion!
More reminiscing and opinions in the next post.
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