Holy Week in Bantayan: Fast or Feast?

Is exemption from abstinence of meat still legitimate in Bantayan?

How about we look again on how individuals observe and how tradition are observed in my exquisite town, Bantayan.

Cebu, Philippines – While traditions are helpful in keeping the sacredness of religious festivals, there are few open to error and which may facilitate the interruption of present day, and now and then uncalled for, exercises.

A case would be Bantayan Island. For a very long while, nearby and global voyagers rush to the island at the northern tip of Cebu for what is regularly mixed up as the island's party (feast day) amid the Holy Week. The conceivable reason is maybe the impossible to miss way that the Bantayanons (individuals of Bantayan) have customarily observed Holy Week.

For Catholics, Holy Week is a recognition of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. In the Philippines, among the practices by and large saw amid Lent are fasting and abstinence from meat items, particularly on Good Friday.

Holy Week is considered as a time of reflection and contemplation. Most, if not all, establishments in the Philippines stop activities starting Maundy Thursday until Black Saturday. There are the individuals who might go to " Holy Week" goals where remnants of traditional celebrations are still observed.

It’s a tradition

Amid Holy Week, the region of Bantayan is prominent for its Santo Entierro (Holy Burial) procession where the Stations of the Cross are depicted in life measure figures mounted on carozzas (carriages).

Some of these pictures are accepted to have been brought by Spanish priests in the late 1800s. The generally late figures and pictures have been dispatched by the prosperous groups of Bantayan. Consistently, these pictures are shown amid the Good Friday procession.

With regards to tradition, individuals in Bantayan have an special method for observing Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Not at all like whatever is left of Cebu (and maybe whatever remains of the world), utilization of meat amid Holy Week is permitted in Bantayan.

As per reports, this was an special agreement contained in a Papal Indult in the 1840's that absolved the Bantayanons from forbearance of meat on Holy Week. The archive containing the indult is shown at Saints Peter and Paul Parish Museum.

How this indult came to be stays indistinct among Bantayanons. One variant expresses that since Bantayan is a fishing island, the vast majority of the occupants amid pre-Spanish and Spanish time were fishermen, and nourishment source for the most part originated from the sea.

To guarantee that the fishermen subscribe to Holy Week practices (i.e., did not work), the exclusion was proclaimed by Church authorities in Spain; subsequently, enabling the general population to eat meat.

The other rendition describes how fishermen decline to go out to sea and fish amid the Holy Week, dreading the fierceness of God. Without items from the ocean, just meat was accessible to individuals. This clearly prompted the giving of the ecclesiastical indult to the Bantayanons.

Boost but a threat

Over a hundred years after the ecclesiastical indult was conceded to the Bantayanons, the inquiry is whether meat exclusion is as yet legitimate these days. With its root connected to a religious practice, is it still ready to guzzle the gravity of the Holy Week and what it celebrates?

Numerous are attracted to Bantayan island for its white sand and flawless shorelines. Amid Holy Week, the unmistakable way that Semana Santa (Holy Week) is commended in the island has progressively drawn tourists.

However while it is a lift to this current island's economy, it has additionally undermined the conventional practices and holiness of Semana Santa itself.

---

---

Live to Love! Love to Live!
Do No Harm! I'm a Lover of Fun!

---

---