HOLY Week is passing by without our beloved Lenten traditions around the country because of the coronavirus lockdown, probably the very first time on such a scale since the Spanish colonizers arrived and established the various towns in the archipelago over 400 years ago. There are stories that during major epidemics and even during the last World War, many of these traditions continued giving hope and consolation to the Catholic believers.

The Holy Week, the very last week of the 40-day Lenten season, known to Filipinos as Kuwaresma or Cuaresma — from the Latin Quadregesima, meaning 40 days; ironically, quarantine also comes from the Venetian term for 40 days so, this year, Kuwaresma literally became Kuwarantina — is on a par with Christmas as the most important religious time of the year. In the West, Easter is more important than Holy Week.