Nazareno
The annual procession of the Black Nazarene was held last Saturday January 9. Traditionally the procession begins at Quiapo Church, goes around the district, and returns to the church. There is always a huge crowd: tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of devotees (deboto) of the Black Nazarene turn up in fulfillment of their vows.
This year to relieve congestion the organizers and the City of Manila decided that the procession would start at Quirino Grandstand in Luneta and wend its way back to Quiapo. More space means more people: devotees started camping out at the grandstand days before the actual event. Say Luneta can accommodate two million people. Say they all want to join the procession all the way back to Quiapo…
These photos were taken by Uro de la Cruz, who reports that many “deboto” were “de-bote”. There was a lot of drinking going on at the procession; the crowd was enveloped in a fug of alcohol fumes.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 11th, 2010 at 10:06
i was here, among the crowds. didn’t smell alcohol though. it’s too bad the photos are in black and white; it was such a colorful, festive event
January 12th, 2010 at 01:26
Three hundred sixty three days. That’s how much time anyone can visit the wooden nazareno thing in the Quiapo church unharassed (see, I abhor all human religions for many reasons,this being one of them) and they BELIEVE they all have to be there on this single day. How many dead? How many pinned,suffocated,collapsed,bruised,mangled,crushed? How many fell on Manila’s open sewers? And once the “holy” procession is over, aren’t these mostly male devotees the same thugs who rape,kill,gamble,sell and use drugs,snatch cell phones,engage in gang wars, beat their wives and kids,and drink their innards to death the rest of the year,believing that this single “holy” act absolves them of all their wrongdoings? I can’t wait till the christian “holy week”. What is it with third world countries and blood,sweat and gore?
January 12th, 2010 at 08:42
For that many people to latch on their hopes for a better life on a so called miraculous statue, we really must be in dire straits. Utter hopelessness brings out this kind of resignation and blind devotion. It is so pathetic.