The present Black Nazarene statue is one of two surviving life size statues burnt aboard a Manila galleon from Acapulco, Mexico, was brought to Manila by the first group of Augustinian Recollect friars on May 31, 1606. Was originally placed in the first Recollectos Church in Bagumbayan (Luneta), which was established on September 10, 1606.
In 1608, the image of the Senor Nazareno was moved to a bigger Recollectos church dedicated to San Nicolas Tolentino. Again in 1787, Archbishop of Manila, Basilio Sancho de Santas Junta y Rufina, ordered to move the image of the Senor Nazareno to the church in Quiapo, this time under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist. During the stay of Senor Nazareno in Quiapo Church, the image survived the great fires that destroyed Quiapo Church in 1791 and 1929, the destructive earthquakes of 1645 and 1863 and the continues Bombing of Manila in 1945 during World War II that made Manila flat on the ground. Today the head and the cross of Senor Nazareno stay on the "Altar Mayor" of the Minor Basilica and the original body image of the Black Nazarene is used in the processions.
The traditional procession was called "Pasan" because the image is carried on the shoulders of the devotees and brought around the streets of Manila in honor to the "Fiesta of the Black Nazarene" (Pista ng Itim na Nazareno), January 9th feast was chosen as a date for the original transfer in 1787 to Quiapo Church and Holy Monday which both events are attended by millions of devotees that crowd the streets of processional route. Serious injuries and even death in previous years were either drunk and foolhardy or simply overestimated their physical abilities to withstand the grueling task of pulling the rope while being crushed on all sides by their fellow barefoot devotees. There were reports, of minor cuts, abrasions on the feet, fainting spells due to sheer exhaustion of many devotees.
The parade could last for more than 12 hours, not every one who join is able to withstand the duration. There are those who join for only as long as they could physically manage, while others do so for only a few minutes, as some politicians and personalities who do it more for the photo, to see and be seen opportunities. Veteran devotees wearing maroon, some yellow t-shirts, white ribbons tied around their foreheads, with white towels on their shoulders who climb over peoples' shoulders just to get on the cart and touch the Black Nazarene statue or the cross with their towels, while some are pulling the ropes that moved the Black Nazarene cart. Some devotees grabbing the leading part of the ropes to redirect the flow of the parade to their liking but were pushed back, by veteran devotees to its usual route that has been the tradition for many decades.
My father, a veteran "pasan" devotee said, the traditional and forever route of the procession of Senor Nazareno that traces all those side streets of the Quiapo families who gave the biggest contributions to the image. From around Plaza Miranda to calle Villlalobos, to Echague, right to Gomez, right to Carriedo, left to Evangelista, to Quezon Boulevard and under Quezon Bridge, to Globo de Oro, streets behind Times Theater on Quezon Boulevard. To Barbosa, Escaldo, Norzagaray, R. Hidalgo, Farnecio, Duque de Alba, San Rafael, Plaza del Carmen, Raon, Mendoza, back to R. Hidalgo, Echague, Plaza Miranda and back to Quiapo Church, as I remember my father told me. My father added that, somewhere at the same spot of every procession, in one of these streets, same "problem" happens, The Senor Nazareno will almost take a fall from the shoulders of the "Hijos de La Senor Nazareno."
Veteran "pasan" devotees are superstitious and they always stick to old ways, original plans, original procession routes, scared of revisions and alterations. The Senor Nazareno might not like it, "baka "castigo" ang abutin ng Pilipinas" (Philippines might suffer because of the consequences). Some veterans said changes were made during the "pasan" of 1940, which caused WW II and the revised "pasan" of 1968 - 270 persons were killed as a result of an earthquake, when a six-storey Ruby Tower building in Manila collapsed. The revised route of the "pasan" of 2001, "Typhoon Ondoy" caused 464 deaths in the Philippines according to the "Los Veteranos Hijos de La Senor Nazareno." Of course these are all superstitious beliefs invented by the devotees so the tradition will stay with The Senor Nazareno de Quiapo, but for whatever reasons "pasan" is one of the most unusual religious traditions that made the Philippines a unique country.
- ka tony
14th of April, '14
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