Lenten Season

• Lent - Commemoration of Jesus' passion, death and resurrection.
• 40 day season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving
• 3 pillars of Lent: Fasting, Prayer, and almsgiving
• -          “kuwaresma” = Quadragesima

  -          traditional number in the bible
•    Fasting - one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed one full meal
•        Abstinence - refraining from eating meat
• Palm Sunday-called Passion Sunday, is the final Sunday of Lent and the start of the Holy Week
• Pasyon/Pabasa - Poem or religious writings that is being sung about the story of Jesus’s Christ’s passion and death
• Penitensya - Pampanga becomes unusually renowned for penitents who walks in the streets or carry a wooden cross as a form of repentance for their sins.
• Many of these Lenten penitents may be seen in Magalang, Pampanga, in the town of San Agustin. This practice includes reenacting Jesus’ agony by being nailed
• -          Penitensya begins on Maundy Thursday in Pampanga, with penitents covering their faces and lashing on the self-inflicted wounds on their backs with a set of bamboo sticks linked together and attached to a rope.
• -          On Holy Friday, people flock to San Fernando’s Barrio Cutud to see men willingly nailed to the cross in a reenactment of Jesus’ execution.
• Senakulo- was derived from the Spanish word cenáculo which means the “place where Jesus Christ celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples.”
• play depicting the life and passion of Jesus Christ. Done during several nights on Holy Week is senakulo,
• The bloodiest reenactment and the most popular is the senakulo in San Pedro Cutud, San Fernando, Pampanga.
• Visita Iglesia -A tradition that takes place on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, during which one visits at least seven different churches, ideally with his or her family.
• -          The goal of Visita Iglesia is to pay respect to the Blessed Sacrament and to seek atonement for one’s sins.
• -          Stations of the Cross are often observed during church visits. Some churchgoers would pray at two stations for each church, or they would visit 14 churches to fulfill the 14 stations.
• Holy Week - Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are regular national holidays in the Philippines. The observance of holy week traditions in the Philippines is a powerful expression of Filipinos’ religion and passion for religious practices.