On Friday, over a hundred people watched on as 10 devotees were nailed to wooden crosses.

A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.

On Friday, over a hundred people watched on as 10 devotees were nailed to wooden crosses, among them Ruben Enaje, a 63-year-old carpenter and sign painter. The real-life crucifixions have become an annual religious spectacle that draws tourists in three rural communities in Pampanga province, north of Manila.

The gory ritual resumed last year after a three-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has turned Enaje into a village celebrity for his role as the “Christ” in the Lenten reenactment of the Way of the Cross.

Ahead of the crucifixions, Enaje told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday night that he has considered ending his annual religious penitence due to his age, but said he could not turn down requests from villagers for him to pray for sick relatives and all other kinds of maladies.

    • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      75·
      8 months ago

      It’s protest. What protest accomplishes is messaging. Communication of violence, in protest of atrocity.

      Thousands of people, including foreign tourists, came to watch the annual religious spectacle in San Pedro Cutud and two other nearby rural villages.

      I swear just the other day we were deeply moved by the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell in protest of genocide. But when brown people do it it suddenly becomes “yikes this backwards culture,” “get a load of these whackos.” Really revealing our Western-centrism and implicit racial bias here.

      To be clear, I also find it disturbing. That is the fucking point. But if your first instinct upon seeing this, like many of the comments here, is to speak derogatorily of this individual? You are the fucking problem.

    • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      12·
      8 months ago

      re: your edit

      don’t worry not accusing you of bigotry yet; it’s the other comments which are the problem.