It’s Good Friday in Dumaguete once again, and all the heavy wheels of the city- the banks, the stores, the schools, the government offices, grind to a halt and stop. Nothing moves. Main streets are deserted. It’s like a ghost town.
It’s an official holiday, like Christmas, and like Christmas, is observed by the faithful and the faithless alike, without choice. Unlike Christmas, however, Good Friday provides no fireworks or rock bands, and nobody gives Good Friday presents to children- they only get to hunt Easter eggs on Sunday.
It’s not a happy holiday. After all, it’s about death. So it’s not surprising that it casts a grim shadow over everyday public life. A visitor might get the impression that the whole city was in mourning.
When I came here, I was amazed by the seriousness with which Holy Week was taken. In America I always thought of Easter Sunday as a marker of the end of winter, a kind of dress-up ritual, a part of spring vacation from school. I hardly noticed Good Friday.
But then, I was raised with the “Scientific People” in America, who regarded religion with contempt or ignored it entirely. So when I saw the empty streets and closed stores in Dumaguete on Good Friday, It seemed to me that it was a city composed of very pious and religious people.
That was partly an illusion. It’s true that public places are empty in honor of the Passion of Christ. The churches are full. But in the barangays it’s a different story. Nobody’s working, so there’s plenty of time for gambling, drinking, and local cockfights.
Every man with a prize fighting cock pits against his neighbor on some patch of local dusty ground. And the dead cocks provide a nice snack with the liquor later, since only pork and beef are forbidden during the fast. In fact, Good Friday might also be called “National Cockfight Day”.
But this doesn’t mean the solemnity of Holy Week is just a fake, and that the people are really without faith. Ask them if they believe in God and Jesus- and they look at you as though you asked them if they believe in air, or water.
These empty streets on Good Friday are for real. It’s just that beliefs here are so deep, so taken for granted, that people can afford to have a little fun with them.
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Author’s email: john.stevenson299@gmail.com
