Melaldo 2013: Cutud Lenten Rites (Part 2)

I’ve always wanted to go to Cutud during the Good Friday of the Holy Week, sought to witness the excruciating vows of the penitents that includes scourging and flogging their back with bamboo rod making  their skin to rip exposing a bloody mass of tissue; covering their entire head with clothes and walking bare footedly. It is truly a blood-spattered severe flagellation.  It has been the practice since 1956.



The organizers of Melaldo 2013 (Holy Week 2013) really made an effort to transmit the message of the holy week by giving a realistic re-enactment on how Jesus was captured by the barbaric Roman soldiers to the dramatic twelve  stations of the cross to the crucifixion scenario. 

I must say, crucifixion is the highlight for the most of the spectators, the real life nailing of the palm of the penitents and hanging on the cross for about 10 minutes under a hot withstand. So much discipline to be acquired by those people who are willing to be nailed and practiced what Jesus gone through just to salvage the entire humanity for the sins have done. As we know, this discipline is their way to be forgiven for the sins they committed. But, what intrigued me were the 14 devotees nailed in the cross, one of the them nailed 26 times for the past years.
 

Actual Nailing

Basically, Jesus died on the cross to redeem the world for the sins committed. Jesus is God in flesh (John 1:1,14; Col.2.9) and only God can gratify the Law requirements of a perfect life and perfect sacrifice that cleanses us of our sins.

Medical team rushed to the crucifixion site to attend medical needs of the nailed penitents.

 
Wish to see the Cutud Lenten Rites next year, here is the "How to get there."

1. From Victory Liner Cubao, take the bus bound for Olonggapo City. P120
2. Get off from the bus in Robinson's Pampanga in San Fernando, Pampanga.
3. Ride a jeepney (with a sign board of 'palengke')  going to palengke. P8
4. Hire a tricycle going to Brgy. San Pedro, Cutud P50

*Click here for the Part 1 of Cutud Lenten Rites

Keep posted for Cutud Lenten Rites 2014 / Melaldo 2014