THE FEAST OF THE BLACK NAZARENE - the most scenic, historic religious event in the Philippines
November 25, 2008 by admin
Filed under Manila Festivals, Quiapo Festivals
THE FEAST OF THE BLACK NAZARENE
The Festival
One of the most scenic, historic religious events in the Philippines is the Feast of the Black Nazarene. Celebrated every 9th of January, thousands of people of all kind take part in the procession in Quiapo expressing their gratitude, carrying out their vows, or moved by faith.
A life-size image of Jesus Christ carrying a cross, the sculpture is dark-colored and believed to be miraculous. The image is carved from wood by an anonymous Aztec carpenter, transported from Mexico by a galleon. The image is flocked by devotees every Friday and now enshrined in the Minor Basilica since 1787, in Quiapo, a small, well-known place in Manila, Philippines, hub of commerce and trading because of the Quiapo market and wide variety of stores in almost all part of the metropolis.
The celebration is signaled to have begun when the huge gates of Quiapo church opens and the image of the Black Nazarene is just about ready for the procession. Thick flock of devotees wave their towels for the miraculous image crying ìViva Senor!î.
Participants of the procession dress in maroon clothing, grab long ropes for the image to move across an ocean of people in the streets. As the carriage pass by devotees, some would attempt to touch the image while it is a tradition to wipe the image by a handkerchief or towel, and others toss the towels in the air.
Expressing humility, participants join the procession barefooted.
History
Augustinian Recollect friars brought the statue of the Black Nazarene to Manila on 31st of May, 1606. It is first enshrined in the first Bagumbayan recollect church, inaugurated 10th of September, same year under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist.
The statue was transferred to San Nicolas de Tolentino, a bigger recollect church in 1608.
The Manilaís Archbishop, Basilio Sancho de Santas Junta y Rufina, ordered the statue of SeÒor Nazareno be transferred to Quiapo sometime in 1787.
Despite great fires that burnt Quiapo church in years 1791 and 1929, historical earthquakes in 1645 and 1863, and the Bombing of Quiapo during the World War II in 1945. the image of the Black Nazarene survived.
Due to the the damages inflicted to the statue, only the replica is paraded in the streets of Quiapo and started year 1998.
The Scoop
The micaculous doing of the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno has spread and became popular across the country and has caught attention of huge part of the population as they became devotees of the image, in the encouragement of the two popes, Pope Innocent X in 1650, and Pope Pius VII sometime in 19th century, to pray before the Black Nazarene.
Some would say the image was brought in the Philippines colored as of the flesh, and time made the material of the statue turn dark. Some say while it is being transported, the galleon caught a fire and burned the image, earning the name, the Black Nazarene. Though still debatable as of this date, devotees can only prove the wonders of the miraculous statue.
Peace and harmony, long life, good health, and deliverance from danger, prosperity and good living, among many others, is a typical prayer of the followers and believe with their faith with Jesus Christ, it is possible to achieve all of these.
The devotion to SeÒor Nazareno is a long time practice of many Catholic Filipino and the usual act of tossing towels or handkerchiefs to the parading image, to be tossed back, believed to be possessing miraculous powers granted by the image.
In Succession
Today, only the replica of the image is paraded around Quiapo every Good Friday, while the original image rests in the Basilica. It is said devotion of the Filipino people to God in the apellation of the Black Nazarene has continue to flourish.
On the 9th of January, the population of the followers of the Black Nazarene has reached epic proportion of eighty thousand people joining the procession in Quiapo, Manila, approximately three million in Plaza Miranda and Quezon Bouleavard.
