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Community => Religion and Philosophy => Topic started by: tygerarmy on April 06, 2012, 06:59:26 pm

Title: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: tygerarmy on April 06, 2012, 06:59:26 pm
Filipino fanatics (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-06/philippino-fanatics-crucify-themselves-for-good-friday/3937448?WT.svl=news0)

Quote
In a bloody display of religious devotion Roman Catholic fanatics in the Philippines have had themselves nailed to the cross as the Christian world marks the day Jesus was crucified.

The gruesome real-life re-enactments of the crucifixion, which are held every Good Friday in the Philippines, are frowned upon by the Catholic church but have become freak tourist draws.

One of the participants, faith healer Arturo Bating, spread his arms and maintained stoic calm as he was hoisted onto a wooden cross atop a sandy mound. He then had 10-centimetre nails driven through his palms.

It was the first time he had done it, he said.

"This is a vow I had made to God so that He will spare my family from sickness," the penitent, swathed in a white robe, said after his ordeal, which lasted several minutes, as is usual, and was seen by hundreds of people.

"It was a bit painful, but bearable," he added, pledging to take part in the ritual every year.

In some cases the devotees - who do not take painkillers - also had their feet nailed to the cross and one person had to be rushed off in a waiting ambulance after his feet suffered from heavy bleeding.

More than 20 fanatics, including one woman, were nailed to crosses in the farming regions on the outskirts of the northern city of San Fernando and nearby Paombong town.

Crucifixions are the grisliest, but by no means the only extreme acts of penitence on show in the Philippines, Asia's largest Catholic outpost with about 75 million followers.
Dozens of barefoot male devotees wearing black hoods whipped their own bare backs bloody with strips of bamboo tied to a string as they went around the San Fernando neighbourhoods on Thursday and Friday.

Daily Fail Link (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126024/Christians-NAILED-crosses-gruesome-Good-Friday-enactment-Jesuss-death-Philippines.html)

More images and a video.

Why?
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: gyeonghwa on April 06, 2012, 07:04:47 pm
Korea does this too.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: armandtanzarian on April 06, 2012, 10:29:45 pm
They do this every year.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Radiation on April 06, 2012, 10:46:28 pm
I really don't get how people can put themselves in so much pain in the name of religion.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Juna Starrider on April 07, 2012, 08:02:31 am
A old co-worker from the Phillipines told me a hilarious story in which they put on a passion play for Eastern at her Church.  The man playing Jesus was tied to the cross (with ample support so it wasn't painful) and could not move.  All was well and good, but the hole the cross was not deep enough, and there was a gust of wind.  Down went the cross, with the poor man....face first.  The next year, they changed it so Jesus wasn't immobilized.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: shykid on April 07, 2012, 10:33:39 am
Didn't Jesus supposedly go through all this stuff so you people wouldn't have to?
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Barbarella on April 07, 2012, 10:45:09 am
A old co-worker from the Phillipines told me a hilarious story in which they put on a passion play for Eastern at her Church.  The man playing Jesus was tied to the cross (with ample support so it wasn't painful) and could not move.  All was well and good, but the hole the cross was not deep enough, and there was a gust of wind.  Down went the cross, with the poor man....face first.  The next year, they changed it so Jesus wasn't immobilized.

Poor guy. Ouch! At least THAT church was sane enough to just do a normal Passion Play where the carnage is merely a simulation.

Filipino REAL crucifixions, That Muslim festival where a bunch of guys flog themselves with blades, The Buddhist Phucket Vegetarian Festival, etc. .....people do all sorts of weird pain-based rituals, it's a weird "shamanic" sort of thing. Pain in a religious context can alter one's state of consciousness. It's sometimes ridiculous (I mean, 'self-crucifixion'?!) but I say "to each his own".
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Osama bin Bambi on April 07, 2012, 06:17:59 pm
BDSM for Jesus?
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Vypernight on April 07, 2012, 06:57:20 pm
One of my former managers was from there, and he had nightmares years after seeing all that.  Big surprise that he has no desire to ever bring his daughter there, no matter how devout the family is.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: RavynousHunter on April 07, 2012, 08:38:13 pm
Christ, people...if you want an altered state, there are dozens of easily-available, and likely far safer, hallucinogens out there you could consume and claim you saw Jesus himself doing the Curly Shuffle.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Old Viking on April 08, 2012, 05:28:59 pm
When belief is at its most intense, the intelligence always shines through.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Sylvana on April 10, 2012, 04:33:26 am
I cant help but wonder how these people do things like this, and don't consider the fact that they will never be able to use their hands again properly. You don't undergo the trauma of having a nail driven through your hands and come away like nothing happened. Even if they manage to maintain most of their functionality, they wont be doing any work for the next month odd until the wounds heal.

This is craziness that is just beyond me.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: StallChaser on April 11, 2012, 04:43:28 am
I cant help but wonder how these people do things like this, and don't consider the fact that they will never be able to use their hands again properly. You don't undergo the trauma of having a nail driven through your hands and come away like nothing happened. Even if they manage to maintain most of their functionality, they wont be doing any work for the next month odd until the wounds heal.

This is craziness that is just beyond me.

As long as it doesn't sever a nerve, muscle, large blood vessel, or get infected, they'll be fine.

"Don't worry, the worst that could happen is we all die." - Jade Curtiss.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Barbarella on April 12, 2012, 10:47:11 am
Christ, people...if you want an altered state, there are dozens of easily-available, and likely far safer, hallucinogens out there you could consume and claim you saw Jesus

That said...I agree. Pop some schrooms.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: MadCatTLX on April 12, 2012, 11:20:06 am
Wasn't it proven that the human body can't be supported by nails in the hand, and that it would more likely have been done to the wrists?
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: erictheblue on April 14, 2012, 03:55:02 pm
Wasn't it proven that the human body can't be supported by nails in the hand, and that it would more likely have been done to the wrists?

I've read the same, though I cannot remember where.

National Geographic did a TV series called Taboo. where they profiled some activity that seems strange ("taboo") to most Westerners, but are perfectly normal in other cultures. One of the episodes was about people having themselves crucified in the Philippines. They focused one man who promised that if his wife and daughter survived the daughter's birth (it was a rough one), he would have himself crucified for 10(?) years. Wife and daughter lived, and he was on crucifixion #10.

I managed to watch the episode, but it was rather creepy. (Not too graphic, though. No shots of him actually getting the nails driven in.) From the look on the participant's faces, though, it's clear they weren't having much fun.
Title: Re: re-enact crucifixion for Good Friday
Post by: Sylvana on April 16, 2012, 05:35:50 am
I managed to watch the episode, but it was rather creepy. (Not too graphic, though. No shots of him actually getting the nails driven in.) From the look on the participant's faces, though, it's clear they weren't having much fun.

If you have 'fun' while having crude pieces of metal driven through your hands. You have far bigger problems than just engaging in over the top religious ceremonies.