A member of the Hijos del Nazareno, those marshals riding the andas or wooden carriage carrying the image of the Black Nazarene, suffered from heart failure in the middle of the commotion during last Friday’s procession in Manila. Hundreds more were given first aid or rushed to hospital for trauma or injuries.
More than 5 million people were said to have attended the procession, called traslacion. Devotees would literally climb over the heads and shoulders of others just to reach the andas and be able to at least briefly touch or rub towels on the image of the dark Christ carrying the cross, which is believed to be miraculous.
Although the Black Nazarene was originally brought to the Philippines from Mexico during the Galleon Trade in the 1600s, Filipinos have developed a unique devotion to the image, whose passion and dark skin they could identify.
The Black Nazarene thus attracts those who are suffering and poor, who saw no solution to their problems except a miracle from God. Many have testified that the Nazareno has granted their prayers, and this inspires others to join the procession to try their luck or keep their panata or pledge to join the procession each year as part of lifelong devotion.
The procession itself becomes an opportunity for them to express their desperation to be able to touch the Senyor Nazareno, believing that mere contact would result in a miracle as it was with cloths rubbed on relics of saints. There amidst a sea of people, where a stampede could happen anytime, they express their faith by taking risks, as if to prove their sincerity to God or to their fellow devotees.
Devotees take turn struggling against each other to be able to reach the andas and right after also stay in the crowd to help others do the same. It is thus a paradox of competition but also a very strong solidarity in faith. Such is genuine expression of popular piety that the Church has allowed. It is faith directly connected to culture.
It is the same justification for our own Sinulog Festival in Cebu. But devotees of the Santo Niño are drawn to a different image of Christ, who by the way is also dark like the Nazareno. The Santo Niño de Cebu appeals to them as a child, who can be less strict unlike the usual depiction of Christ as an adult king or judge. In fact, tales of miracles of the Santo Niño include those of the image disappearing and seen wandering or playing elsewhere, like the boy Jesus in the Gospels who once went missing.
Cebuanos are fond of comparing the Sinulog with the Black Nazarene procession. As devotees from nearby provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao make a pilgrimage to Cebu during the Sinulog Festival, the number of participants in the procession for the Santo Niño could also reach millions like in Manila during the traslacion.
Residents take their own image of the Santo Nino and display it in a little makeshift altar in the street outside their homes or carry it with them as they join the crowd in the procession. They sing and wave to the image of the Child Jesus in the carroza or carriage as it passes by.
Cebuanos often brag that the Sinulog procession is more organized and calm compared to that of the Nazareno. Some would even dare say that our faith is more civilized or mature. Unlike in Manila, everyone, even the very sick could freely join the procession without feeling unsafe or fearing the possibility of stampede. The procession moves in much slower motion and the crowd is more meditative.
But there is something appalling about this view. It fails to acknowledge the uniqueness in this expression of faith, which is exactly what makes folk spirituality or popular piety both a genuine cultural and religious phenomenon. Such view reeks of intolerance and condescension. It is short of saying that those predominantly poor devotees of the Black Nazarene are uncivilized, selfish, and even violent.
Behind this rather subtle form of self-righteousness is veiled contempt for the Tagalog masa. We fail to recognize that given the crowd density and the kind of collective trance that devotees in the Nazareno traslacion actually experience, occurrences of stampedes and the number of casualties or injuries have actually remained still relatively low. That itself is a miracle.
As the once invisible God took form in the historical Jesus, human beings have since attempted to represent Him in art. Those are imperfect but very earnest attempts to portray a God that once became flesh. The diversity of artistic representations also expresses the diversity of faith.
God gifted us with such ability to imagine and create so we can express ourselves, our faith in particular, freely in beauty. The diversity of religious art and devotions associated with them reflect peculiarities of culture. Others may even deviate from official liturgy, as in the case of folk religiosity.
But that is faith that’s pure and comes straight from the people. And we cannot say that our faith is better than that of others. That remains only for God to find out.
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