4/21/2003: Easter crucifixions again

The longer I do IotD the more I find that some items are annual and this is one of them. This is actual crucifixion for Easter, happening in the Philippines.



With real nails through real flesh.

We saw it first last year; here's the blog view version of last year's image which is pretty much the same deal.

Well if it wasn't so weird, I wouldn't put it up again.

They do real nails through hands and feet? Ouch - where's the blood though?

     Not to sound like a gore hound or anything, but where's the blood? Do these guy's have their hands prepierced or something? What exactly is the point of getting pinned to a cross anyway?
     I mean if it's symbolic do you really need the nails? If you do then why the ropes around the shoulders? The ropes around the arms should be suffiecient to keep the nails from tearing through the hands. If the ropes around the the chest and shoulders are to prevent suffering, then why the nails? I'm confused...

     Damn it. I was typing as Bel posted... then asked the same question...

And why not do it right, as He was crucified? Put those nails through the wrists!

"Always look on the bright side of life...!" Everybody!

I think it was considerate of the organizers to use nails with really large heads so that they would have less chance of missing with the sledgehammer and crushing the guy's hand...

This must be the Filipino Christian equivalent of crawling to Mecca on one's knees.

I was reminded of the sundance, actually.

The things people do in the name of religious devotion ...

My kids, who only know Richard Harris from the Harry Potter films, were sort of taken aback when I described "A Man Called Horse" to them...I don't think they believed me.

One of my friends just made the commitment to the sundance, which is why thoughts of it were fresh in my mind.

You have to show your kids A Man Called Horse now, you realize ... just describing it won't freak them out enough. Thinking ... I was probably in my midteens when I saw it the first time.

Shouldn't they do the crucifixtions on Good Friday?

I believe they were done on Friday. They use the term Easter to cover the whole shebang. I read there were 6 or 7 people nailed this year in the Philippines this year.

Actually BRUCE the figure is higher. My ship berthed there recently and I personally nailed a number of the citizens

I knew when I posted, I should have rephrased that.

I know I'm gonna burn in someone's Hell for saying this, but...

How many channels does the guy in the first picture get on that headgear of his, anyway?

Unsure of the exact figure but his TV guide is this( gestures with hands) thick.

Come on! He's in the Phillipines! Surely he won't get more than, say, five or ten channels.

     I knew about the suffocating, but thought (with legs intact) it could take days. If you're putting nails though the hands why would brething diffuculty matter?

     How long do they stay up there?

Palms or wrists???

Leonardo Da Vinci discovered that the nails couldn't have gone through the palms. He tried it. The skin and fascia pulls out sliding along the tarsals and the body falls down.

Through trial and error he discovered that they had to have nailed the wrists. Then there is enough structural support to hold the body.

In examining skeletons from the day, this supposedly is true.

I read all of this on the web somewhere, so it must be true...It makes sense though.

I've tried to do a little research to find out why stigmatics have the wounds in the wrong place, but the sources I can find are Catholic ones that don't discuss that facet of the phenomena, and in fact dismiss the psychosomatic angle almost entirely.

<a href="http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_237.html">Straight Dope on crucifixion & stigmata.</a>


<a href="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005Kt7">a believer's answer.</a>

My experiences in the Philippines

I lived in the Philippines for 12 years growing up and I saw these crucifixions several times. Here's what I've seen/heard from other Filipinos.

First off, the Philippines were a Spanish colony for 400 years and through that time they had Catholicism impressed upon them. Some took to it very well, others rejected it, yet others incorporated it with their own animistic beliefs.

In the case of the crucifixions, many of those who are being "crucified" are trying to show their dedication to God. It's an extreme sense of penance, an idea in Catholicism that I don't truly understand. This crucifixion is similar to the stories of random Saints who would flog themselves because they want to humble themselves more before God. Not my style, but admirable if that is their true desire.

Physically, they have nails throught their hands and then rope around their wrists (or else, as Shivaa pointed out, they would just fall down with rips throught their hands) and a little hump on the cross to stand on. They will usually hang up there for a couple of hours, or perhaps if they're really dedicated, all night, and then they'll come down. I have heard rumors of people who have actually killed themselves doing this whole thing, but I've never seen it or heard it from a credible source.

It seems to me like it's a big production to scare kids, but I don't want to knock it, since I haven't tried it.

Welcome Ipret. thanks for the real poop.