San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites in San Fernando, Pampanga. There are three crosses with nailed men on the top of the hill with spectators, both local and foreigners, watching them.
It includes a passion play culminating with the actual nailing of at least three penitents to a wooden cross atop the makeshift Calvary.
Events
Every year on Good Friday or the Friday before Easter a dozen or so penitents - mostly men but with the occasional woman - are taken to a rice field in the barrio of San Pedro Cutud, 3 km (2 miles) from the proper of City of San Fernando, Pampanga and nailed to a cross using two-inch (5 cm) stainless steel nails that have been soaked in alcohol to disinfect them. The penitents are taken down when they feel cleansed of their sin. Other penitents flagellate themselves using bamboo sticks tied to a rope.
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
The "Cutud Lenten Rites" has been registered in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory of the Philippines called 'Pinagmulan.' The move was initiated by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the main cultural agency of the Republic of the Philippines. The rites may be nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, where 3 other Philippine intangible heritages have already been inscribed.[1]
