The Good Friday Procession

As a child I remember that Good Friday or "Biyernes Santo" was always very quiet and solemn.  There was a certain "Biyernes Santo" behaviour expected of us kids back then:  Just stay inside the house, no playing, no music and no loud laughter.  Uh, correction please:  no smiling even! 

Which is why we always looked forward to the procession that comes in the late afternoon.  After keeping still and being solemn all day, that gave us a chance to get out of the house and jostle with the other kids who were watching the procession.

I remembered all these with a smile when my son and I went to see the Good Friday procession yesterday afternoon in Barangay Concepcion.  We did not join the "prusisyon";  we just contented ourselves watching the nicely dressed-up "carrozas" (carriages) pass by. All the familiar characters from the Passion narrative were represented - the suffering Christ, His sorrowful Mother, the apostles, Mary Magdalene and the other holy women of Jerusalem, even Simon of Cyrene who helped Christ carry the Cross.  Thus it was a relatively long procession.

The procession left the Immaculate Conception Parish Church at 5:00 pm, then made its way on General Luna Street to Cuatro Cantos in Hulo.  From there, on to C. Arellano Street, then back to General Luna Street via Camus.  It was nearly 7:00 pm when the "prusisyon" arrived back at the church this time without the statue of Christ lying in the glass casket.  I was told that the image was left behind at the St. Jude Chapel.

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 We were able to watch a part of the Aglipayan Church procession as well, which usually follows that of the Immaculate Conception Church.  We didn't get to see the beginning of this procession, though, because we were late in coming out again to the street, having been misinformed about the time interval between them. I do remember that these two processions often overlap and there are times when one has to wait or give way to the other when their paths cross.  But everything always works out.

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