Maleldo is the Kapampangan word for Holy Week, and in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga, it is marked by one of the Philippines’ most intense Lenten traditions. On Good Friday, penitents called magdarame walk the streets as flagellants, while in Barangay San Pedro Cutud the Via Crucis passion play — first staged in 1955, with an actual crucifixion added in 1962 — ends with volunteer penitents nailed to wooden crosses as a panata, a vow made in thanksgiving or prayer. Thousands of spectators gather at the Cutud crucifixion site and the city’s other sites in San Juan and Sta. Lucia. These photos are from Maleldo on Good Friday, March 25, 2016.
See also: Kuraldal 2013
Maleldo 2016