Holy Week
When I was much, much younger than I am now, I used to spend my summers in our province, Marinduque.
Those summers were ones I especially anticipated: I would be two months away from my family and living with relatives who did not mind at all spoiling me and catering to my every whim. Two-peso coins (back when they still had them and when they were all hexagonal and shit) were made available to me if I so much as opened my palm, and back then you could do a lot with a two-peso coin.
My relatives' digs were gorgeous as well. Back in Pasay, where I used to live, the only thing you could see out the windows--on either side--were shanties and prostitutes (really). In Marinduque, the house I lived in was right in front of the sea. And it had a terrace! In my youth, there were two certain indicators of wealth: air conditioning and/or a terrace.
There were also the morions. It was customary for kids to taunt them from afar with this chant:
Morion bungi! May tae sa binti!
...which in English meant "Toothless morion! You have shit on your legs!"
Seeing as I had the luxury of a terrace, I could taunt all I wanted without fear of any reprisal.
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Of course, the most striking images left in my head from those summers in Marinduque were the flagellants and the statues. As a young kid, I would watch my aunt lovingly make light scratches on my uncle's back with a razor blade. I never thought any of it was weird, it was just something that had to be done.
What did freak me out were the life-size religious statues. On an altar overlooking the house's main staircase was a statue of a tearful Saint Veronica holding her famous handkerchief with the three faces of Christ. I dreaded waking up in the middle of the night, thirsty and looking for a glass of water, because that would mean I would have to go down that staircase alone. And you really do not want Saint Veronica and three Jesus faces looking down at you.
And then there was the matter of the Pieta in the garage. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was just like the plain marble of Michaelangelo, but it was painted. Painted very well. Try walking into a dark garage and being surprised by that. Not fun.