Happy Easter

Today, most of Christendom celebrates Easter Sunday, which is the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion. It also marks the end of the Lenten season. It is a joyous occasion where people in Bohol usually spend frolicking in the beach with lots of food, which signifies the end of fasting in previous days of the Holy Week.

An important activity held at dawn on Easter Sunday is the "Sugat" (Sugbuanon Binisaya = meeting), a religious procession that commemorates the meeting of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary. The part of the procession that churchgoers awaits most is when the angel (hanging from a harness) descend from heaven to get the veil off the statue of the Virgin Mary.

I have not had the chance to attend this activity during my childhood. I am not an early morning person so I'm sure I was woken up a number of times by cousins and aunts telling me to join them watch the Sugat in Baclayon's Immaculate Conception Church. I knew it was an amazing spectacle to see as it was the only thing that was talked about as soon as I wake up. And the highlight of the show? It is always the angel taking off Virgin Mary's veil e.g. who it was this year, still him/her this year?, how beautiful the angel's voice is, etcetera.

Looking back at it now, I do regret not being able to attend the Sugat but it is the past. If I am going to have another opportunity, I will not hesitate to go this time. But what I did not miss attending is the "pangaligo sa dagat" (Sugbuanon Binisaya = dipping in the sea). Would a child miss the most important thing during Easter Sunday? Certainly not me.

Photo - http://biblical-art.com (The Resurrection of Christ by Peter Paul Rubens)