PHILIPPINES: DEVOTEES NAILED TO WOODEN CROSSES IN ANNUAL GOOD FRIDAY RITE MARKING THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST

Record ID: 328660

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: DEVOTEES NAILED TO WOODEN CROSSES IN ANNUAL GOOD FRIDAY RITE MARKING THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST
  • Date: 25th March 2005
  • Summary: (W2) CUTUD, PHILIPPINES (MARCH 25, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV CROWD ON CRUCIFIXION HILL 0.06 2. SLV FLAGELLANTS KNEELING IN FRONT OF CRUCIFIXION HILL 0.11 3. SV PENITENT CARRYING CROSS SURROUNDED BY CROWD 0.17 4. SLV PENITENTS WALKING UP CRUCIFIXION HILL 0.21 5. SLV PENITENTS LYING ON CROSSES 0.24 6. SV/CU OF PENITENT BEING NAILED TO THE CROSS (3 SHOTS) 0.43 7. SLV OF CROSS LIFTED VERTICAL POSITION 0.52 8. SV ANOTHER PENITENT BEING NAILED TO THE CROSS/CROSS LIFTED 1.11 9. SV CRUCIFIED PENITENTS 1.17 9. CU OF CRUCIFIED PENITENTS (2 SHOTS) 1.28 10. CLOSE UP OF NAIL ON FEET 1.33 11. SLV CROSS OF ENAGE BROUGHT DOWN 1.43 12. SV WOMEN WATCHING/ENAGE CARRIED OUT OF HIS CROSS (2 SHOTS) 1.53 13. MCU (English) AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN MATTHEW JAMES SAYING: "It takes a lot of courage to get up there and have people drive nails into your hands, a lot of faith there." 2.02 14. SV SECURITY AT CRUCIFIXION HILL 2.07 15. MCU (Filipino) PENITENT RUBEN ENAGE SAYING: "I'm okay now. I feel lighter, after I have been nailed to the cross. But my cross was really heavy." 2.18 16. SV/CU VARIOUS OF PENITENTS WHIPPING THEIR BACKS (4 SHOTS) 2.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CUTUD, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Reuters ID: LVADAGDIQIWJ8RBNU8U2TDPZZGN2
  • Story Text: Devotees nailed to wooden crosses in annual Good
    Friday rite marking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.



    Thousands of locals and foreign tourists watched 11
    devotees as they were
    nailed to wooden crosses in the village of Cutud on Friday
    (March 25, 2005).

    The crucifixion is the highlight of Easter celebrations
    in Asia's only predominantly Catholic country.

    The men grimaced as three-inch stainless steel nails
    dipped in alcohol were driven through
    their right and left palms and their crosses were lifted to
    a vertical position under the
    scorching sun.

    Matthew James, an American who came to the Philippines
    on business, came to Cutud to see for himself how the
    crucifixions are done.

    "It takes a lot of courage to get up there and have
    people drive nails into your hands, a lot of faith there,"
    James told Reuters.

    One penitent, Ruben Enage, who has been going through
    the ritual for 15 years said he had vowed to perform the
    ritual 15 times after his mother was cured of tuberculosis.

    "I'm okay now. I feel lighter, after I have been nailed
    to the cross. But my cross was really heavy."
    Before the devotees were nailed to the cross, dozens of
    men walked shirtless and barefoot nearby, hitting their
    backs with bamboo sticks attached to ropes or whips fitted
    with broken glass.

    The Roman Catholic Church officially frowns on the
    bloody rituals, but makes little effort to discourage the
    highly popular practices.

    Foreigners used to join the crucifixions but were
    banned in 1997 after local officials learned that a
    Japanese man nailed to a cross the previous year was
    actually an actor being secretly filmed for a scene in a
    Japanese pornographic video.

    Elsewhere, Filipinos marked Good Friday with prayers
    and pilgrimages.

    Easter is a major religious event in the Philippines, where more
    than 85 per cent of the population is Catholic.


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