Believed to have the power to heal illnesses, the hinulid of Calabanga is being visited by various people who believe that their faith to God could heal them.
I am a person who easily gets fascinated by people’s behavior, tradition and other unusual conducts. This year’s celebration of the holy week was like no other. In my hometown, Bombon, Camarines Sur, people were really embracing the Catholic Tradition as one event worth preparing. The whole town served as one of the venue of the annual Alay-Lakad (I’m not good in translating words, but it means something like Offer-a-walk). Alay-lakad has been a tradition for decades wherein people from various places in and outside Naga City walk approximately 50 kilometers on bare foot. The youths, as I observed, dominated the thousands of participants in the Alay-lakad. They join their friends, and some even brought with them their boyfriend or girlfriend. Being in Bombon was like having a VIP ticket on a crowd-full concert. I saw people pass by our house in an unending file from sunset until the break of dawn. The objective of the Alay-lakad is not merely walking but experiencing to suffer just like Jesus did in the last few hours of His life. The real test lies on aching knees, ankles, in-grown, At the end of the route, people will line up (and stay there for almost half-a-day), with the aim of kissing the image of Jesus Christ called Hinulid. As my self-pledged obligation, I have promised to join the Alay-lakad and kiss Jesus’ foot. My mum agreed to join me in my ‘so-called’ sacrifice. We were so driven to reach the finish line, but my mum’s sandal couldn’t bear too much walking so eventually the strap tore off (so much for the bare-foot tradition). An hour of extreme walking and we were almost there (Bombon is just an adjacent town of Calabanga, the end of the line). It was an hour before midnight when we started to fall in line just like the thousand others. Few friends came by but with too many people around walking, we hardly talked. Hours went by and we got really dehydrated and hungry. Good thing there were free salabat (tea), soda, sandwiches, breads, juice, water, soups, candies and many more. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to taste any of these free stuffs with the fear that they were bribe for the next election or even worse, they’ve been poisoned. Anyway, so we stayed their desperate even just to touch a strand of Jesus’ hair. It was 3am that we realized that our situation was hopeless and so we decided to give up. After 4 hours, we weren’t even halfway of the finish line. Sigh. It took us few more minutes to realize that if we stay, we will have to wait for 5 hours more. And so the rest was history. We arrived home 5am fully exhausted. In just a few moments, none of us realized that we were already in bed sleeping.
Lent is the period of fasting, penitence, and self-denial traditionally observed by Christians in preparation for Easter. As a Christian, I did more than that. God, I’m so proud of myself.
Who says it’s not leaning?
The leaning tower of Bombon, Camarines Sur, as described by some publishers can be associated with the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy. People believed that the structure of the tower itself is not that stable making lean directly towards a public school in the said place. Several people, upon the creation of the tower, said that it must be destroyed because it is leaning. The church says that it must not be because the faiths of the people are just being tested and their continuous prayer would not let it fall. Years passed, yet the church’s leaning tower still exists- firm and strong- despite the natural calamities it had faced all over the years.
Believed to have the power to heal illnesses, the hinulid of Calabanga is being visited by various people who believe that their faith to God could heal them.
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