Deeply religious, residents adhere to age-old and strictest observance of the ‘Cuaresma’

CALBAYOG

CITY — Coming home to the old hometown for the week-long celebration of the Holy Week is still like being in the midst of what Calbayognons of old first marked “the holiest of weeks” in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar more than a century ago. They strictly observe and practice traditional events with passion and perseverance up these days.

To begin with, while most Catholics in the country widely refer to the Holy Week as “Semana Santa,” residents here call the observance as “Cuaresma.”

For one there is the matter of proprietary linguistic preference. Since Tagalogs widely use the former, the Warays would prefer the latter in using as their own.

Although, strictly speaking the former is specific as Holy Week, the latter word embraces the entire Lent season. We are told there are still few dioceses in the Philippines which use the word in reference to the Holy Week.

And so it is that the Warays celebrate the “Cuaresma” from Ash Wednesday which to them is the start of the passion and death of The Christ on the cross

The conservatism of the wider populace of Calbayog in celebrating “Cuaresma” could be traced to year 1910 when the town became an Ecclesiastical Center or a Diocese. Under its supervision were Tacloban and the entire province of Leyte then a oneprovince entity; similarly, the Samar was also a lone province then.

Today Calbayog has a population nearing 200,000 in the last census. Some 90 percent of the residents are Roman Catholic, with a sprinkling of Aglipayans, Seventh Day Adventists, INC, Baptists, and Born-Again Christians.

But the dominance of Roman Catholic liturgical services is rooted in its influence as a majoriy religion in this city. Some sects are encouraged to practice their own services for the Holy Week.

These age-old traditions of the “Cuaresma” are very imminent in Catholics’ practice of sislence, fasting and abstinence, avoiding luxurious pursuits, lavish food, leisure and social activeties.

In my high school days, our home fell silent as loud conversation and boisterous laughter were banned.

There was less food on the dining table, meat was nowhere in sight, prayer before meal was a must. All these punctuated by the short angelus prayer at 6 pm, and recitation of the long Holy Rosary after that.

The bulky and powerful Monarch tube-powered radio set across the altar in the living room was draped in deep blue satin cloth. The same drape was wrapped around my ukulele, clarinet, and an old violin pawned to my father by a neighbor.

Everyone had top join the winding Good Friday procession which starts at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, with the summer sun at its hottest. Devotees, 10 abreast, walked behind each of the 14 “carozas” with life-size figures.

Prominent families in the city volunteered to shoulder the cost of building each station in 1970, and its yearly maintenance of wardrobes and décor of the carozas. Initiated and put into fruition by the late Mrs. Carolina S. Rono, the religious project has become a devotees’ and tourists’ attraction of Calbayog every “Cuaresma” season.

There are two other pilgrimage sites within the periphery of the city. One is the life-size 14 Stations of the Cross carved by the hillside winding upward to the last station in Sta. Margarita town, eight kilometers south of Calbayog.

The other is the 22-foot colored concrete statue of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary mounted on the natural black granite of an islet in Barangay Malajog, north of the city. There are also 14 Stations of the Cross winding around the giant statue, with landings for the convenience of elderly devotees.

The pilgrimage site was built in 2007 by Jun H. Oben as his “saad” (a holy pledge), while living in San Francisco, USA.