EVERY first week of January, residents of Manila and the rest of Luzon are treated to the spectacle called Pista ng Itim na Nazareno (Feast of the Black Nazarene). The exact day of observance is January 9, but various collateral activities in this flamboyant and riotous Catholic ritual necessitate the use of two more days before the actual feast.
This year, the festivities started last week with the procession in Quiapo, Manila of replicas of the Black Nazarene, mostly coming from devotees in other parts of Luzon. These wooden images were blessed at the minor basilica in Quiapo, creating a major traffic jam in the area.
President Marcos Jr has declared January 9 a holiday in Manila, saying “it is but fitting and proper that the people of the City of Manila be given full opportunity to participate in the occasion and enjoy the celebration.”
‘We hope that like in the past, the Traslacion will be peaceful.’
It should be noted that church and city officials expect more Filipinos to attend this year’s Traslacion, the huge procession of the Black Nazarene from the Quirino Grandstand at the Luneta to Quiapo. The big attendance this year may be traced to the three-year break that the annual religious observance “suffered” because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, the Hijos del Nazareno are back with a vengeance, and local authorities, the police, the Philippine Red Cross, and street sweepers and garbage collectors are on their toes to make the observance peaceful, orderly and clean.
One of the highlights of the celebration is the “Pahalik” at the Rizal Park, where devotees will conduct a whole-night vigil and prayers, culminating with a High Mass in the morning of January 9, to be followed by the longest procession ever in the city’s history, which sometimes take the whole day and much of the night.
All these episodes, especially the huge procession, are attended by hundreds of thousands of Catholic devotees. Any foreigner not familiar with the religious culture of Filipinos would wonder why a legion of followers would be mesmerized by an old, ordinary piece of carved black wood. Many Filipinos swear the Nazareno possesses tremendous miraculous powers of healing and other miracles, and testimonies abound to prove this.
The star of the show is alternately referred to as Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, Poong Itim na Nazareno, Hesus Nazareno, and El Nazareno Negro. It is nothing but a life-size image of a dark-skinned, kneeling Jesus Christ carrying the cross and is enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo.
The Black Nazarene was carved by an unknown Mexican from dark wood in the 16th century in Mexico and then transported to the Philippines in 1606. Pope Innocent X gave the blessing of recognition to the lay Confraternity of Santo Cristo Jesus Nazareno in 1650 to promote the devotion to Jesus through the icon, thus starting the cultural hysteria about the Black Nazarene in the Philippines.
With Quiapo Church as its home, the image is brought out from the shrine for procession three times a year: January 9 for the Traslacion, Good Friday (the Nazarene’s liturgical feast), and December 31, on New Year’s eve, the first day of its annual novena.
The January 9 procession reenacts the image’s “solemn transfer” in 1787 to the Minor Basilica of Quiapo from its original shrine inside Intramuros. In modern times, Traslacion became the largest procession in the country, drawing millions of devotees who swear to the “miracles” they have received by just kissing or touching the image.
This year, the Black Nazarene will be enclosed in a glass box for security reasons, and participants have been told not to be rowdy and wild, and to avoid physical injuries and viral infections. Security measures taken by authorities will rival an imagined event wherein both the Pope and the sitting US President are in Manila. We hope that like in the past, the Traslacion will be peaceful.
