Holy Week = Culture Shock!!

It's Easter today but this past week was Holy Week here in the Philippines and it was a total culture shock for both Leon and Leanna. Here in the Philippines they conduct what they call Mandarame and that is where you see guys on almost every street corner parading around and striking their backs with a whip like thing. The noise alone is very loud and you can hear it from our apartment and when you hear this sound that means shortly after you will see a bunch of guys striking their backs.

The gross part about it is that this whip really hurts their back and you can see that they are actually bleeding. You will also notice the crowd walking beside them and if you walk too close you make get some blood splattered on you too. You will also see some people carrying the cross just as Jesus did.

The whole point of doing all this is for these so called sinners to repent what they have done and they do this as a sacrifice. They parade around so that people can witness them repenting but they cover up their faces so people will not see who these sinners are as they are embarrassed. They also actually televise people that volunteer to hang themselves on the cross with real nails that actually pierce through their skin just like what really happened to Jesus. There were 6 people that chose to do it this year but we did not attend as I did not want to witness something that gruesome and thought it would be a little too much for the kids.

Both Leon and Leanna were scared at first and it was actually Leanna that was a lot more scared then Leon. She was so scared to the point that every time she saw or even heard the people coming she would cling on to me like a little baby and cry. To help her get over her fear Mammang Lou suggested that we take care to see the Mandarame in person so that she would see firsthand that it was nothing really and also explain to her why they did that. You will see in the pictures we all were watching on the street as the parade of guys came and after awhile watching Leanna was not afraid anymore. It's still hard for both of them to understand though why this is done but at least they are not so scared.

The Mandarame lasts the whole week with a lot of them doing it mainly on Thursday and Friday. I'm glad it's over though as it is still gruesome to watch even for me. I guess it's because of all that blood and even the smell!! If you can take seeing more pictures then click on the link but if not then don't!

Mandarame Pictures