Molina, Ciphia May D.

2015 – 05364

Anthro 100

“Pabasa ng Pasyon: A Holy Week Tradition of the Filipino People”

The Philippines is known to have a rich and diverse celebration of the Holy Week. Most these
traditional events has been passed down for many generations now, with its first account dating back to
the Spanish colonization Period. It is, without a doubt, a product of a heavy foreign influence on our
culture and traditions, and has become a pillar of religious belief that was once forced down on our
ancestors. In the long period of being a Spanish colony, the Filipinos became Catholic converts, and a
devoted and faithful one at that. As time passed, Catholicism became largely accepted by the people and
was slowly being integrated into the drastically transforming culture and tradition of Filipinos from all
over the country. Today, the Holy Week is one of the most anticipated and celebrated events of the year,
not only by Catholic Filipinos but by mostly everyone from the country. Many of the Filipinos that practice
Catholicism count themselves as devotees, upholding a promise of annually participating in their selected
traditional event as a symbol of their devotion to the Lord and to the other saints. This devotion is also
often called as panata, a lifetime devotion in exchange for the miraculous encounters that they claim as
the work of God in their lives. Devotees may decide on how to devote for themselves – many faithfully
participate in their chosen traditional events, some decide to fast for the whole week or month, and many
more. This can be passed down from one generation to another in families, maintaining the traditions up
until the present.

One of the many traditions during the Holy Week is the pabasa ng pasyon or pabasa. This event
can be held anytime from after the Palm Sunday mass until the Good Friday. In our subdivision, a neighbor
hosted one in their house on the mid-morning of April 16, 2019, Tuesday. The owner of the house, Mrs.
Datol, is a devotee and has been joining the pabasa since she was a lady and has been hosting one since
she became married and owned a house. Like in any other pabasa, the readers chanted continuously until
they finished the book on the dawn of the next day. There was one leader who holds the mic, singing the
verses in her own a capella tune. Unlike other instances where the readers are divided into two groups
and sing like they are answering each other, this group of readers sang the verses as a group only,
following the leader’s tune along the way. The members of the group took turns in leading, and was
changing when the current leader prefers to pass it on to the next member of the group. In monotonously
singing the verses of the book, the leader initially reads the title of the certain chapter before starting,
then goes on to sing the first verse in her own tune, as the rest of the group follows. The group of devotees,
Mrs. Datol’s fellow churchgoers in the Jesus Lord of the Divinie Mercy Parish, was reading the Casaysayan
ng Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon Natin (Account of the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ). This version of the book begins with the account of the creation and ends with the Last Judgement.
This version is also famously called as Pasyong Pilapil, called after the name of the believed writer of the
book, the native priest Mariano Pilapil.

The event was held in the outdoor portion of Mrs. Datol’s house, roofed and inside their gates.
The place is around 12 sqm., accommodating around 25 seats. The front had a hanged purple cloth with
“PABASA 2019” on it. Furthermore, it can be observed that the space was divided from a bigger space by
a thin, white curtain. On a table stood the shrine of the black Nazarene, a cross with white cloth on it, a
framed photo of Jesus Christ, and a candle in the middle. Purple balloons were hanged everywhere in
front and on the gates at the left portion of the area. By the door to the right, the shrine of Mary can be
seen, standing beside a hung painting of Mother Mary. Also on the right side by the door, a table with
food and drinks was served. A variety of food can be found: biscuits, candies, nuts, bread, Filipino
delicacies, and coffee. Cups are also placed on the table for coffee or water. Along the way, the devotees
who felt hungry or thirsty were welcome to get refreshments and snacks. Some of them felt sleepy and
had to chew on some nuts to stay awake. This group of chanters is particularly comprised of women only,
with everyone coming having an age of not lower than forty-five years old. Like any other group of middle-
aged Filipinas gathering together, some of the chanters fade away from chanting the verses and instead
starts conversation with the other chanters next to them. Despite being quick and small talks of
conversation, the small number of readers seem to become a bit distracted and divided from time to time:
the portion around the leader being focused on following her, while the chanters further away from her
slowly becomes distracted and begins to chat with her neighbor chanters. They would later go back with
chanting, finding their way to the current verses and following the tune that the leader sings. This occurred
the most during the dead hours of the day, the afternoon and the late evening to early morning, when
these middle-aged women can be assumed to have their usual time of rest during the day and the night.
One of them said that it was their way of keeping themselves awake, aside from the coffee and snacks
that they chew on, which was not as effective as a moment of conversation with her fellow devotees.
Throughout the event, I noticed that Mrs. Datol, the host, was not actively participating throughout the
whole event. She was present in most parts, but she was not singing along with the other women. She
was also not holding a copy of the pasyon that they were reading, which was a sign that she was not really
reading at all. Later in the evening, she was seen entering her house and was observed to be away until
the early morning the next day. Some of the devotees assumed that she took a rest that night and
returned when she woke up.
Looking back at the history of the religious traditions in the country, these events were held for
different reasons in different periods of time. The reasons behind conducting religious events then were
more for political reasons rather than religious, and it is interesting how these transform throughout time.
During the Spanish colonization period, the conversion of religious faith was one way of keeping yourself
alive. As part of the Spanish rule’s claim that it is their duty to introduce Christ into the world, the imperial
colonizer imposed their religion on the Filipino people, getting rid of every proof of their former religious
beliefs and all the writings and traditions that go with it. Many are forced to confess faith and take part
in the new traditions that they shared, while some accepted the Catholic faith with their whole hearts,
truthfully believing in the works of the God that they now serve. Three hundred years of being under the
rule of colonizers is no short amount of time, and in this span of time the Filipinos learned to accept the
Catholic religion as theirs. The demand for localization arose in the lack of common understanding and
local expression of faith for the Filipinos. With this, religious materials started having local versions, and
religious traditions for the Filipino masses started having a local uniqueness in its own. This means the
pabasa having its Filipino version for everyone to read and sing. As the masses continue to gain their own
way of expressing their faith and religion, they grew accustomed to these traditions, becoming
comfortable in them and believing them as numerous ways to express not just their faith, but also the
aspirations of these people to their own country. During the Spanish and American colonization period,
social class and structure among Filipinos created a separation between the elite illustrados and the
peasant masses. They had different beliefs and views in many things, especially in the current state of the
country and what it needs to move forward. According to Reynaldo Ileto’s Pasyon and Revolution (1979):
 “The rural masses had something of their own to say and Sturtevant decries the fact that
the Filipino elite either refused to listen to or muffled these voices from below in order to preserve the
image of the national unity against colonial rule.”
In this light, the Filipino masses resorted to religious-oriented movements to forward their nationalistic
views, together as the peasant masses of Filipinos that cry for their freedom and separation from the
imperialist that conquered their lands for more than three hundred years. This continued even during the
American colonization period, as the social class divide continued to separate the elite from the masses
and muffle their cries for freedom.
Over time, the religious-oriented traditions of the peasant masses has become a tradition that
was passed on from generation to generation, from family to family, not only as a reminder of the
struggles of the Filipino people. For some, it was purely religious belief that pushed them to pass the
tradition from their generation to the next, as the act of devoting introduced numerous blessings into the
life of these people and to their families. Today, the religious traditions during the Holy Week are
conducted by devotees of the Lord, and Catholics who reflect on the true meaning of Jesus Christ’s death
and resurrection. The cry of the Filipino peasant masses, one of the forces that pushed the traditions to
live on, is now a unpopular history that many of the people are foreign to. It is of course important to
understand that the Holy Week truly is a celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but
these traditions that are unique to Filipinos, how these traditions transformed not only in its structure but
also in its essence and form, is also an essential part of the modern traditions that should be gone back to
and shared to the people. In doing so, the Filipino people are given the chance to further understand the
history of our society and aid in the current issues that we face as a nation.
In this observation, as well as in many others, the essence of the modern-day pabasa is rested on
the devotion of the believers that continue the panata that they have decided to take on for as long as
they live, or on the panata of their families to continue with this tradition, generation after generation, as
an exchange for the blessings, no matter how great or mundane, that they have received in continuously
participating to it. This has been the purpose of religious-oriented traditions since the beginning, but the
meaning and importance of these traditions to the Filipino people hasn’t always been that. These Holy
Week traditions of the Filipinos, especially the Pabasa ng Pasyon, have evolved from something that was
very foreign and unknown to something that is of the Filipino people. The way it is conducted, the way
the book was written to be sung, the way people act and move around in this congregation of people –
all of this has a reason why it is, and all this has been transformed and localized in a way that the Filipino
masses used it for more than religious purposes.