Good Friday, Good Keekai

Visita Iglesia tuwing Semana Santa sa Las Pinas
Visiting of Churches during Lenten Season in Las Pinas

A very old ritual/ tradition in the Philippines every Maundy Thursday or Good Friday to commerate Jesus' passion on the cross and to practice penitence.

Am writing this adventure (i consider this as one of mine... so bugger off) because in my 24 years of celebrating or going through lent... this is my first to do this and i have a feeling i will be doing this whenever and if ever I happen to be in the Philippines in time for the lenten season (as my gramma suggest). This might be KeEkAi's way of penitence.... but then again, we will see....

So there. After getting off the phone at past 03.00 i hit the bed but was soooo restless and couldn't contain my thoughts. I was twisting, turning on my bed...couldn't seem to find the perfect spot to sleep. Next thing i knew the alarm was bleeping away so i opened the lights. What the hell is wrong with this piece of crap... it's only 04.30! So... i went back to bed (mentally noting never ever to trust that darn clock). Just lying down... and thinking... thinking... thinking... thinking... sh*t, better take a bath then as it's already 05.30 and my brother's picking me up at 06.30. And so, i hit the showers and dress up.

Killing time, waiting for my brother's would-be and should-be wake up call, i checked my mails (with of course my little brother continuously annoying me with "Ate, on ku lang ragna ko") and done other stuffs loading myself as well with some yet-to-be-ripe banana (hmmm... hoping i could last the whole morning with just that and water). So here i am before i face the day... so darn bangenge!


Nah, i can go through the day like this for as long as i have with me my ever trusted new shades... no one will ever know. True to their words, my sister-in-law, Joan, picked me up at exactly 06.30. She said she came from jogging... Yeah, right! Jo! Jogging! ha-ha!

Walking from our house which is just 5-minute walk (and 15-minute walk chinkey phase) to their's and my dad's house (as they are neighbors), we stopped by to buy pan de sal. On the next store, we saw my nephew, Wesley, and my brother buying congee/pasta soup--both of them just got out of the bed! And then we walked together.

Waiting for them to prepare and dress-up, i waited for my brother to finish cooking cornedbeef with scrambled eggs and fried rice, i gulp on some glasses of coke. Sooo thirsty! Of course, played with my nephew who still look like this!

Argh, homm mak mak! Couldn't resist the aroma as my stomach started to protest with just the banana and coke inside, I started stuffing it with real breakfast. At 08.00, we were off to pick up Nanay.

At Manuela, while waiting for them to come out, I decided to...

While my nephew taking photos of this and this...

So when everyone is aboard (around a little before 09.00) , off we go. The thing with doing visita iglesia is that you have a 3pm deadline. My gramma said its the time when Christ died. Period. So there goes the explanation. But for me, i think it's practically before traffic builds-up as, i think, there are a lot of church activities starting at 3pm such as mass and what-have-you religious rituals after The Death. With that in mind, we decided to just visit churches within Las Pinas and do a double station of the cross in every church we go. Originally, there should be 14 churches; one station of the cross each church. But as we started late and there's the so-called 3pm deadline, we set off to 7 churches; double station on each.

First stop: Christ the King Parish

Second: St. Michael

Third: Good Shepherd

Fourth: Verdant Church

Fifth: Church in BF

Sixth: Nature's Church

Ahh, this is how it should be done: Pray whatever it is on the visita iglesia way of the cross book. So I lead and so we did to every church we've been to.

After several churches, I am in the brink of surrendering!! Ghahhh! Am beat, am thirsty, am actually dehydrated (self-nourishing using my saliva), my feet hurt, my skin burned, my face is oily and my hair is a mess! But guess who remained vigilant?

Nanay for still having the will and energy to go through all these; and Wesley for still having the guts to face everyone despite of his awfully big BUKOL (me trying not to love as hard now) on his forehead.

Well, Wesley's bump is another story: We were on the Sixth Church and we were looking for the 12th station (which turned out to be the altar itself as it commemorates the crucifixion). He was amused by the other kids who are practicing the Allelujah Dance for the Easter Celebration. He was actually doing his "Warren Peace" (from Sky High) impersonation but then the next thing we knew he probably stumbled and hit face first. Anyway, after the twelfth station, we set ourselves to the last church which is near Macapagal Avenue. We are also bound to meet Tita Carolle, Tito Blinks and Huggie there.

The Final Stop: Shrine of Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Light

Now minding my attire (with of course a constant bickering from my brother and gramma since the first church), I saw these posted outside the church walls. Nonetheless we didn't mind and still went in. We are afterall not the only one breaking the rules you know!


So we finished. Mission completed and it's only lunch time. We had a nice lunch at a chinese restaurant at Blue Wave. Oh btw, SM Mall of Asia which is due to open on sometime third week of May this year will cater to the middle class. It looks so promising, actually as I saw Starbucks there and some nice stores, too.

Got home around 2pm and started writing this thoughts. Now, it's finished... had to shut this thingy down, hit the showers and snooooooooze! For the nth time, I promise to play badminton first thing tomorrow.

So here I am now after all these:

need this face say more???

Note: My apologies to the bad pictures and the forgotten church names.