A Danish man joined eight Filipinos in re-enacting the death of Jesus Christ on Friday by being nailed to crosses in a bloody annual Easter spectacle in the Philippines before thousands of surprised onlookers.
The crucifixion ritual — held every year on Good Friday in Asia’s bastion of Catholicism — has been marked for decades in farming districts in the city of San Fernando, 65km north of Manila, becoming a major tourist draw despite official disapproval from church leaders.
However, local residents were surprised to see the Dane, identified by a local tourism officer as 48-year-old filmmaker Lasse Spang Olsen, participate in an act restricted to Philippine citizens after a series of embarrassing incidents involving foreigners in the past.
Photo: EPA
On separate occasions, a Japanese and an Australian national underwent crucifixions in the same region, with the former later revealing that footage of the ritual was used in a pornographic movie, while the Australian man was subsequently exposed as a TV comedian.
Olsen, wearing a small video camera to record the act, stoically endured having nails driven through his hands and feet, and hung on the wooden cross for 10 minutes before being taken down. He made no comments to the press afterward, but was overheard describing the event as a “great experience.”
Onlookers were surprised to see him take part, with one saying: “It’s a foreigner, a foreigner,” while another man said: “He didn’t cry out. He took it well.”
Photo: AFP
Others were skeptical of Olsen’s intentions.
“He might be like that Japanese before,” one spectator said, referring to the incident involving the Japan national in 1996.
Eight Filipinos were also nailed to wooden crosses, some of them having undergone the ordeal numerous times already as part of a religious vow.
Photo: AFP
Danilo Ramos, a 43-year-old pedicab driver, participated in the ritual for the 24th time, despite having collapsed earlier while carrying a heavy wooden cross under the scorching heat to the crucifixion site.
After getting some rest and water, Ramos underwent crucifixion, crying out loudly as the nails were driven into his palms.
“I hardly feel the pain anymore. I am used to it ... I will continue this, as long as I can, for my family’s health,” Ramos said, adding that his wife and two children had all been in poor health.
The Good Friday tradition also included hundreds of hooded “penitents” flogging themselves with makeshift whips on the sidelines, sometimes accidentally splattering their blood onto onlookers.
Tourism officer Ching Pangilinan, who identified Olsen as a filmmaker, said village officials had allowed the Dane to participate after he presented a waiver of liability from the Danish embassy.
Foreigners have been banned from participating in the crucifixions after a British national backed out from the ritual at the last minute in 2006.
Asked why the ban was violated for Olsen, the district chairman in charge of the event, Zoilo Castro, declined to comment.
Police estimated that about 40,000 people attended the spectacle, about 5 percent of them foreigners, Pangilinan said.
Organizers changed the schedule this year to minimize overcrowding — instead of having all the crucifixions take place in one district at midday, they were staggered throughout the day in different parts of San Fernando.
Pangilinan said the spectacle has been a big revenue-earner for hotels and vendors hawking drinks, food and souvenirs, but denied that they were commercializing the event.
“It’s not a moneymaking scheme for the city government. Although we are not promoting it as a tourist destination, we cannot stop the influx of people to this district during Holy Week,” she said.
Many foreign onlookers were baffled by the spectacle.
Dana Johnson, an American teacher in Bangkok, said she came due to an interest in other cultures.
“I wonder why they do this. At first it was a bit shocking. I still have a lot of questions about it. It is not a part of my culture so I can’t fully understand it,” the 37-year-old said.
Father Joselito Jopson, an executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said that the church does not endorse the practice.
“These are private expressions of faith. It depends on the faithful. We cannot prohibit them if they want to express their faith in that way,” he added.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
RSS