In the West, Easter is more important than Holy Week. Michael P. de los Reyes, author of Holy Week and Easter Processions:A Liturgico-Pastoral Guide, reminded us that we call Holy Week in Filipino “Mahal na Araw.” As Reyes explains, “In the Filipino language, banal (holy) and mahal (beloved), are used interchangeably in the religious sense: the holy is the beloved and the beloved is holy.”That is why although we cannot come together, we have become creative in still observing a meaningful Holy Week, having online Masses, pabasa and processions through chain letters. Although among the many Holy Week traditions, one we cannot fulfill this year is highly anticipated and the most important in many towns: the Holy Week procession. In seeing Catholicism as a continuum of the practices and beliefs we already had, we have transformed it into a Filipino Catholicism and made it our own. This being together we missed this Holy Week.

Source: Manila Times April 10, 2020 16:27 UTC