the black nazarene procession

photo by rene dilan.

january 9 is the feast of the black nazarene, and every year a procession is held in quiapo (a district of manila) that features a black statue of Christ carrying the cross on His way to calvary being paraded about. this is quiapo's annual fiesta.

An excerpt from the wikipedia entry regarding this subject:

"For more than 200 years the church has been placing the statue on a gilded carriage every January and pulling it through the streets of Quiapo. People who touch it are reported to sometimes be healed of diseases. Catholics come from all over Manila on the chance that they will be able to get close enough to touch the image and perhaps receive a miracle. They also throw towels to the police who guard the statue and ask them to rub the towel on the statue in hopes of carrying some of that power away with them."

the entry also says that this statue was made by an aztec carpenter, and that a priest bought it in mexico; the statue was then transported to manila in 1606.

eight years ago, the church housing the black nazarene started parading a replica of the head of the statue along with the original body due to repeated damages on the statue. the damages are perhaps in part due to the estimated 500,000 people that take part in the procession every year, with many of them desperately trying to get as close to the statue as they can. the guys in the yellow vests are charged with protecting the statue and keeping the procession going.

the photo above was from this year's procession. this was before a stampede broke out during the procession, killing 1 and injuring 20 others. article about that here.

according to the article, such a tragedy has never happened before.

edit: i also found a video (very grainy though) that covers this event. it's in tagalog. (might not work in firefox) (link might change in a couple of hrs.)