Is “Holy Week” a time to party and go to the beach? Definitely! When else do Filipinos get two week days off with a whole weekend sandwiched in between? Who wants to stay at home and watch all these bearded men walking around in sandals and robes on TV? And why (oh why!) is Holy Week the only week of the year that one can “have a deeper conversion and to be in communion with God through personal reflection and sacrifice“? I mean, the hours spent stuck in Manila’s traffic already offers enough time for the average city-slicker to engage in that sort of activity.
Fact is, “Holy Week” is to the Church what Valentine’s Day is to retailers. Holy Week is the week the Church is most “relevant” and when its men-in-robes feel most important. Trouble is, most Filipinos are on to this scam. Holidays within which time certain activities are prescribed are nonsense to say the least. In the case of Valentine’s Day, for example, why be extra loving and expressive to your partner on one particular day only when you’ve got 364 other days in the year to be the same? Same thing with Holy Week. What’s up with all the pressure to rub flesh against them rosary beads all within a single weekend when there is so much time to pray over the rest of the 361 days of the year?
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Being prayerful during Holy Week for me is presuming to see God as subject to our worldly Gregorian Calendar. Fact is calendars have changed many times in human history. And when one considers how infinitesimally short human history is when compared to geological timescales (much less the infinite time scales that God uses to mark his clocks with), then the idea of limiting the best of our prayers to a single week within a year is quaint at best.
So dust off those bikinis and head for the surf, kids! Don’t let a bunch of killjoy clerics make you feel guilty over stuff that makes very little sense in the scheme of the good life we all aspire to acquire.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
I respect all beliefs. If you abserve Holy Week, to make you a better person…then, do it…If you observe Islamic Ramadam, or pilgrimage to Mecca, to have your divine experience…then, do it…
Same way, if you want to take a bath in the Ganges River, in India…to purify you, and remove your sins…then, do it…
If all does not fit your belief…then, do whatever will make you have a divine experience…
There are many paths to find God; whatever you call him. Like a path to the top of a mountain. Some are long and circuitous. Some are straight to the top…
My prayer: is that you all will find your divine experiences…
Why is there a Holy Week? For people to contemplate. I agree that there are a lot of days to contemplate, but that is why it is prescribed days kasi we have also different times to do things. Bakit my Pasko? Bakit may undas? And most of all, bakit may birthday ka? See? If you can buy all the things you want and eat all the food that you like at any time of the year, bakit ka pa magse-celebrate ng birthday mo? Just like that!
I don’t agree on partying on Holy Week. You have MOST of the days of the year to be hedonistic. Why not spend those days and spend your vacation leaves for partying sa beach? Why spend it sa Holy Week? Can you NOT respect the solemnity of the occasion?
I usually agree on most of your post about criticizing the Aquino government for all its shortcomings and lame excuses, but this post, sorry, but not sorry, I disapprove of this. This is offending, insulting, disgusting, nauseating, preposterous. You better wish you have not written this. I pity you sooooooooo much! You think and think, but you do not have depth. You are a shallow person, and you always find excuses to be hedonistic. You do not try to detach from the world. And you say, yeah, we have all the days of the year to contemplate. But what most of you do not realize is, “pag may time.” And what if wala kang time? Kaya nga merong Holy Week kasi it is THE time to for sacrifice and self-mortification. Palibhasa, puro pasarap sa buhay ang gusto niyo.
Whether you are offended or not, I don’t care. Whether you will laugh at me or not, I don’t care. I am proud to make a stand and be different than be shallow like you. I just want to point out that your post is hedonistic, nonsense, and utterly useless. If merong nag-aagree sa iyo at kokontra sa akin, sorry, but it just shows how hedonistic the world is. Your morality and priorities are misplaced. And I don’t deal with people who are senseless and who do not know what matters most in this life.
What’s the use of Sundays, then? Holy Week vacation days are peanuts compared to the amount of time most people spend working their butts off trying to make ends meet while making their bosses richer. And oh, the latter gets to have his vacation anytime of the year, at any place in the world.
Why is it that I’m sensing some deep psychosis in your post there? Too much glorification of God can be hedonistic too. It has even ruined the lives of a lot of “martyr-manangs” in the provinces.
“Most of all, bakit may birthday ka” – Most of all? Signs of a confused hedonist yourself?
The Spanish brand of Christianity has a track record of ruining the economies and societies of countries it has colonized. Is it because undue glorification of a god does nothing for industry? For the economy?
This is as hedonist as any culture, look at how what meager money people have is squandered on indulgences.
There are a lot more celebrations of the individual in the Philippines than I’m used to seeing back home too. Graduation ceremonies come at the drop of a hat (my girlfriend’s nephew just had a graduation ceremony from kindergarten! What an academic achievement that was) and the adults I know treat their own birthdays as importantly as kids do.
i was raised an atheist and i find it annoying that you are imposing morals on behalf of your religion on people who do not even want your faith.
who are you to judge people as hedonistic just because they go to the beaches during your time of worship? would you still call them hedonistic if you found them to be muslims?
secularism, boys and girls, the catholic church does not rule the universe, and its word isnt law.
What’s the matter, T, you silly little boy? Looks like you’re afraid that someone actually has different views from your own! Or are you feeling threatened? You sound like a butthurt little pussy willow. Go back to the kiddie table and come back when you actually have something to say that’s worth our time. You see, we don’t give a shit about your personal views. So don’t act as if they give you a warrant to proselytize like the Catholics you fear.
No, he’s got a good point. Filipinos can be very closed-minded about the existence of other beliefs and gods apart from their ‘true’ one, maybe because few are able to travel and see just how clearly a country’s religious heritage is a result of colonisation and politics.
But even the ones who do work in Saudi Arabia or take a trip to Malaysia etc. fail to notice that. Makes you wonder what happened to all the ‘souls’ of heathen Filipinos before the Spaniards brought the church and ‘saved’ them, you must be very grateful to your cruel rulers. Open your eyes!
@akihabara: For someone who “doesn’t care,” you sure are a wordy fuck.
No wonder why the crusades in the old ages always annihilates every single non-believers of Jesus and your post proves it you katoliban.
To be truthful! Millennial age Filipinos in general tend NOT to treat Holy Week as a religious and solemn period – in fact we are probably the first generation not to do so! It has become one of the big vacation periods (whether with family and/or friends).
Not always true. My 73-year-old mom tells me in the old days, my dad’s family (and this was the 1950s to 1960s) would always go to the beach during Holy Week. When she came in, my mom, being the pious Catholic, put a stop to it.