Maleldo — the Kapampangan Holy Week — begins in earnest on Holy Wednesday in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Hooded penitents called magdarame start their panata (vow) days before Good Friday: carrying wooden crosses, crawling on hot pavement, and whipping their backs in processions that wind through the barangays. (Warning: the photographs are graphic.)
These photographs are from Holy Wednesday 2010, the opening movement of a week that builds toward the crucifixions of Good Friday in San Pedro Cutud. To an outsider the rites can look extreme; to the penitents they are promises kept — for a healing, a thanksgiving, or a prayer for family.
The week culminates on Good Friday in Cutud.
