Let me share how Filipinos celebrates “Mahal na araw” in tagalog and “Semana Santa” in Spanish.
Our tradition is very rich with Spanish-influenced Catholic rituals and has a lot of superstition which I would definitely share to you on this article.

Just a brief history, “In early 16th century Christianity was introduced in the Philippines by Spanish missionaries and colonists. As of 2015, it was estimated that 84 million (82.9%) of the population are Catholic.”

PALM SUNDAY

Holy week begins on Palm Sunday. “Linggo ng Palaspas” in tagalog. Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entrance of Christ into Jerusalem when palm branches were placed in His path.

Palaspas is ornately woven palm fronds and it would be difficult to miss because there would be a lot of stalls outside the church or in the market selling it. The priest would bless it before or father each mass with a holy water. Then I remembered my mom would place it on our screen doors as she believed that it can ward off demons and it will protect us from bad spirits. The more doors your house has, the more palaspas you need. LOL

However the presiding priest told us that it’s not true and that it should be place on the altar instead. The beginning of the mass is different from the usual Sunday mass. The priest started the mass outside as he walks the route or, in imitation of Jesus’ triumphal entry.

We arrived early so I was able to capture some pics.

You would see in the video that not a lot of people have palaspas, perhaps they also taught that there would be a stall selling palaspas before the chapel and much to my surprise it was not allowed by the management of the mall which I’m not fully aware of. I asked a guy holding palaspas on his hands where he bought it, he said that he bought it from their market, and he was nice enough to share one of his palaspas to us. Thank God I don't have to ask my aunt to buy one for me.

Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Week_in_the_Philippines#Palm_Sunday

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