Gasan, Marinduque Trip - Day 2

Gasan - Morning:

Ate Jheng, my cousin, asked me if I wanted to go to the pulo with them.  Pulo means island in my country.  I declined as I just wanna be relaxed on this holiday.  I don't like going to that particular pulo as well as they don't have toilet there(if my memory serves me right) and I don't need anymore direct sunlight.  I am tanned enough, thank you very much.  :P  Utay, Bochok and I went to Bgry 3 instead.  We visited the newly renovated church.  It was very pretty.  Sucks I wasn't able to take photo of the altar as the mass was being held when we visited.  

When I was younger, my grandma used to sing "morion bungi, may tae sa binti". 

Morions walk around Gasan scaring little kids.  I actually saw one crying yesterday.  I can't remember crying seeing one.  Just surprised how much detail they put in in their costumes.

Penitent.  These devotees cuts themselves and walk around the city whilst hitting their backs.  We call this penitensya and it comes on different variations.  Normally, you pledge to do this for years every holy week.  This man was dripping with blood.

The Gasan Catholic Church. It was 2 years older than my Uni and my Uni turned 400 this year.  

This one is namamanata.  Panata is like penitensya but on a different form.  Instead of cutting himself, this person chose to dress up in religious figure.

Well preserved bell.  It is more than 100 years old.

Gasan - Night

My aunt told us that Friday's procession was both for Roman Catholics and Aglipayan, the 2 of the major religions in Gasan.  The procession was very long.  

Can you see the penitent dressed as Christ?  He carried the cross through out the whole procession.

The past hermanas.  This used to be Lola Aida's panata.

People dressed as apostles.

The man giving out flowers to the devotees.  It was believed that the flowers from the statues give out good luck.  I saw people getting crazy just to get flowers.  

Later that night, we went to my grandpa's cousin's wake.  This was the first time that I met any of the Sager's apart from my mum's siblings and their kids.  We spent the whole night playing Pusoy.  I felt the presence of the spirits that night.  It was really scary, I don't even wanna think about it.  I am alone at home whilst writing this.  :(

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