Holy Week for the Not So Religious

We instantaneously decided to go to Argao for the long weekend. There was a couple of last minute indecisions but we still managed to get going together. My mom was packing so much stuff that people can assume that we won't be coming back.

The reason why we want to go to the province was mostly because we want to get away from city's pollution and be able to relax from school/work/chores. The religious activity in the province is a plus.

I'm not even a tiny bit religious and I can say the same for my siblings and mother. Old churches fascinate me though. The way small vegetations start to grow on the ledges and the state of the wood and stone of the entire building. I was able to take a closer look at the stone walls of the exterior. It looks like limestone and you could see chisel marks on them. Probably because they had to manually shape stone boulders into angled shapes. Pretty amazing if you ask me. I wonder how long it took them to finish the entire church.

We set off on Wednesday evening, ate a little dinner at a fast food chain in Minglanilla--their service sucks--then straight to Argao.

When we finally arrived, they had to do a bit of cleaning. I say 'they' because I wasn't able to help with the wiping and washing. I had a mishap with a pair of scissors(whose handle is as sharp as its blade) a few hours ago. Ufufufufu is what I would have said until I scraped my wrists on one of the containers I was carrying. So that's two injuries in less than twelve hours. Good thing there weren't any stairs to fall on that day. -_-

Thursday was when the food fest began. First off, barbecue in the private cemetery. It may seem disrespectful, but we had our grandparents' blessing. :D

For dinner, we ate at Alex Kafe near where we were staying. I recommend their halo-halo. Yummy.

We finished dinner at around ten in the evening. By the time we got back, we were already prepping for a movie marathon--if you can call it that. There were only three(out of the eight) that were still awake by the time the second movie ended.

The next day was the main event. Food from morning until evening at Lola Dencia's house.

It is customary in the our region to serve binignit and biko during--but not limited to--Holy Week. Fasting and stuff.

Biko. Photo by Kim

Binignit. Photo by Kim

 
We had green mangoes, kropek and chocolate crinkles for snacks. We also got to meet some of our distant(2nd degree) cousins.

Cousins: Baby Athena, Kimberly and Kirk

For Dinner was fish and squid and some clear egg soup. Again, yummy.

Photo by Kim. I was too busy eating. hahaha

Photo by Kim

Photo by Kim

After dinner, we lounged around until ten then went back to our house played some rounds of Tekken then watched a movie.

The next day was the final one. We spent the entire morning packing up. We had lechon kawali for lunch then did some more packing.

We went home at around three in the afternoon(after saying goodbye to relatives). But we made another snack break at another fast food chain. hahaha

All-in-all, it was more of a culinary and art trip than anything else. You can appreciate more of the culture as a spectator rather than a participant. If you ask me, those 'participants' are just joining in on the activities without even understanding it. I mean, who would wear very high heels on processions. There were even some that were just texting and chatting instead of joining in the prayers. And who would wear seemingly all of their worldly possession in a very religious act when the church preaches on humility. The statues of the saints they were parading would have shook their heads in disgust.