Eight Filipinos were nailed to crosses today to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering to observe Good Friday.
The long-running tradition attracts thousands of devotees and tourists to the Philippines each year, despite being condemned by the Catholic church. Twelve individuals signed up to partake in the real-life crucifixions in the farming village of San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga province, north of Manila. Only eight followed through.
Ruben Enaje, a 62-year-old sign painter, was nailed to a wooden cross for the 34th time. “To be honest, I always feel nervous because I could end up dead on the cross,” he told The Associated Press ahead of the nailing. “When I’m laid down on the cross, my body begins to feel cold. When my hands are tied, I just close my eyes and tell myself, ‘I can do this. I can do this.'”
The devotees wore brambly crowns of twigs and carried heavy wooden crosses on their backs for more than a kilometer through village streets while they were flogged across their bare backs with bamboo sticks and pieces of wood in the sweltering heat. Dressed as Roman centurions, villagers hammered four-inch stainless steel nails through the devotee’s palms and feet. They then hung on the crosses for 10 minutes as the unforgiving sun beat down on them. First-aid personnel was on-site to assist those who collapsed from heat and dehydration or needed their wounds treated.
Many of the participants hailed from impoverished parts community and used the opportunity to atone for sins or to pray for the sick or for a better life. The tradition originates from a play about Jesus by a local playwright in the 1950s. The first crucifixion took place in 1962.
Robert Reyes, a well-known Catholic priest and human rights activist, rebuked the practice. “The question is, where were we church people when they started doing this? If we judge them, we’ll just alienate them.”
Organizers said more than 15,000 foreign and Filipino tourists and devotees gathered for the cross nailings in Cutud and two other nearby villages.
Short documentary, “The 26th Crucifixion of Ruben Enaje,” captures the tradition.
