|
Click
on the pictures to see the rest of the series
"Crucifixion?"
I asked
"First to the right and then second to the left" the friendly
security guard advised us.
My mom and I screamed with laughter as we drove off leaving a dazzled
guard behind who probably never saw Monty Python's "Life of
Brian" and therefore didn't get our little private joke.
"One cross each, he he he."
It is Easter and we are on our way to San Pedro, Pampanga, Philippines
to witness real crucifixions.
According to the papers there will be no less than 14 people nailed
to crosses this year.
This is not some kind of cruel and unusual punishment for law offenders.
Those guys do it voluntarily. Although some of them are real criminals
and they do it to whip up a little leniency with the big boss for
when their time comes.
It's a long walk from
where we parked to the knoll where the action supposed to take place.
We mingled with the crowd. They were the usual guys, a few Roman
soldiers and a bunch of hooded guys flagellating themselves, the
sort you see every day.
Everybody was just hanging around, slowly moving in the general
direction we were heading to as well. The hooded guys swung a bunch
of bamboo sticks attached to a rope around themselves. After a few
minutes somebody with a wooden paddle in his hand started to hit
some of those guys on the back with a couple of short jabs. Right
away they started to bleed profusely. As I found out the paddle
has nine very sharp metal disks attached to it. With blood running
down their backs they resumed to whip themselves with those bamboo
sticks attached to a rope and thus spreading the blood all over
their backs and basically over everything else in their proximity.
Like for example all over this friendly narrator who apparently
went too close to get some details shots. It took me a while to
realize that I was being redecorated with sprinkles of bright red
blood. I looked like I had slaughtered a chicken by biting it's
head off. Blood was everywhere. Even coconuts, balloons and little,
brightly colored chicks that were being sold at the side of the
road were covered in it.
Between every picture I took I had to wipe blood off my lens.
Soon I learned to keep my distance. After all I am a professional
and as such, a little friendly advice for you: If seeing blood makes
you feel a little woozy, may I suggest an alternative choice of
spending Good Friday like for example an egg hunt or something involving
fluffy bunnies.
Noise and commotion from
behind announced the arrival of the main attraction. "Jesus
Christ" I shouted.
My mom, startled and seeing me covered in blood, panicked: "What
happened?" " Oh, nothing, it's just Jesus, he is coming
down the road over there. At least I assumed it was him because
he was carrying a cross and those guys dressed up as Romans kept
on shouting profanities at him. Unfortunately nobody in the audience
along the road took really notice of the poor fellow. Everybody
was way to preoccupied commenting on my blue hair. I didn't count
but I estimate that I heard:"Nice hair" roughly about
3,252 times. Tell you what, if Jesus would have had blue hair he
might have probably been a lot more popular then and now.
We wanted to get a good
view of the crucifixions so we went ahead and left Jesus with his
tormentors.
After walking through some more hooded flagellants and a constant,
fine mist of blood for about half an hour, we reached a checkpoint.
Military people checked our bags before we could proceed to the
crucifixion spot. I guess they were afraid somebody might bring
some weapon and hurt Jesus while he is being nailed to the cross.
We reached the execution ground which was filled with thousands
of people. Balloon and soft drink vendors snaked through the masses
announcing their blood sprinkled goods. Dozens of TV crews and hundreds
of photographers were lined up in front of three large crosses erected
on a small stage.
The crowd stirred up
a lot of fine dust which settled between the drops of caked blood
on everybody's clothes. That's not my idea of a fun afternoon. I
am not a big fan of masses of bloody and dusty people so we decided
to abandon our original plan and head back to the car for a change
of clothes and some nice lunch somewhere that doesn't involve any
form of blood.
Oh, I forgot to tell you what the original plan was. My mom and
I brought a bottle of pain killers with us. We thought having Jesus
nailed to the cross would make a great back ground for a pain killer
ad.
Well now, since we left early I guess the advertising community
has to wait a little longer for some input from this creative genius.
|
yesterday
