Philippine Catholic Festivals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Performing Live in the ‘New’ Normal

Abstract

On 16 March 2020, then Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed the Enhanced Community Quarantine putting the main island of Luzon – where Manila, the National Capital Region, is located – on a total lockdown to protect the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown restricted mobility, social gatherings were prohibited, and everyone was mandated to stay inside their homes. Moreover, there was a temporary closure of what were considered as non-essential establishments, including religious institutions. Being a predominantly Roman Catholic nation, religious rituals and festivals were heavily affected by the lockdown. Many of its ritualistic and festive performances involve human contact, which serves as the faithful’s direct and intimate relationship to the heavens. This essay interrogates how cultural festivals in the Philippines, mostly organised by the Church, adapted to the global health crisis. It reflects how the adaptations challenged and recontextualised the understanding of the live vis-à-vis the context of the digital or the virtual. Finally, a preliminary speculation on the future of the religious festivals in the Philippines is provided as a concluding reflection.

Keywords:

• Virtual performances
• COVID-19 performances
• Philippine cultural performanes
• festivals
• communion

Anril Tiatco is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts. He is an active member of the National Research Council of the Philippines. Tiatco is also currently the convener of the Asian Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research.

Notes

1. William Peterson, Places for Happiness: Community, Self, and Performance in the Philippines (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2016), 145.

2. Patrick Alcedo, ‘Sacred Camp: Transgendering Faith in a Philippine Festival’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 38, no. 1 (2007): 107–32 (111).

3. Peterson, Places for Happiness, 145

4. Ana Santos, ‘Coronavirus: Philippines Quarantines Island of 57 Million People’, Aljazeera Online, March 16, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/16/coronavirus-philippines-quarantines-island-of-57-million-people (accessed December 20, 2021).

5. ‘Guidelines: Luzon Enhanced Community Quarantine’, Rappler Newsletter, March 16, 2020, https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/254783-full-text-guidelines-luzon-enhanced-community-quarantine/ (accessed December 20, 2021).

6. CNA Staff, ‘What is the “Black Nazarene”? Here is the Fascinating History of this Centuries – Old Tradition’, Catholic News Agency Online, January 5, 2022, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250027/history-black-nazarene-philippines (accessed January 8, 2022).

7. Grace Zurielle Malolos et al., ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Church Gatherings in the Philippines: A Policy Analysis’, Christian Journal of Global Health 8, no. 1 (2021): 53–63 (55). doi:10.1566/cigh.v8i1.505.

8. Romulo G. Valles, ‘Recommendations for the Celebrations of the Holy Week During the Quarantine Period (2020)’, CBCP News, March 20, 2020, https://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/recommendations-for-the-celebrations-of-the-holy-week-during-the-quarantine-period-2020/ (accessed December 8, 2021).

9. Tanu Singhal, ‘A Review of Coronavirus Disease – 2019 (COVID-19)’, The Indian Journal of Pediatrics 87, no. 4 (2020): 281–86 (282).

10. Romulo G. Valles, ‘Recommendations and Guidelines for the Liturgical Celebration in “New Normal” Condition’, CBCP Newsletter, May 16, 2020, https://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/liturgical-guidelines-in-new-normal-condition/ (accessed December 8, 2021).

11. Ibid.

12. Sir Anril P. Tiatco, Cosmopolitanism, Theater, and the Philippines: Performing Community in a World of Strangers (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2018), 17.

13. John Wesley Harris, Medieval Theatre in Context: An Introduction (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 71–80.

14. This is based on the Catholic doctrine of the redemptive cross: which, as I discussed elsewhere, is the transformation of the passion narrative of Christ into a necessary experience of suffering. Usually, this is identified as a sacrificial act, enacted for the sake of the many (Sir Anril P. Tiatco, Performing Catholicism: Faith and Theatre in a Philippine Province (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2016), 101–102.

15. Daniel Franklin Pilario, ‘Praying Bodies, Dying Bodies: Reflection on the Nazareno and Santo Niño’, Philippine Sociological Review 65 (2017): 155–61 (157).

16. CNA Staff, ‘“What is the Black Nazarene?”’.

17. Pina Ranada, ‘Quiapo Church Closed on Feast of the Black Nazarene to Prevent Covid 19’, Rappler, January 5, 2022, https://www.rappler.com/nation/quiapo-church-closed-feast-black-nazarene-2022/ (accessed January 8, 2022) (original quote in Tagalog, translation by the author).

18. Ryan Macasero, ‘All Physical Sinulog 2021 Festival Event Cancelled’, Rappler, January 7, 2021, https://www.rappler.com/nation/all-physical-events-canceled-sinulog-2021/ (accessed December 8, 2021).

19. Philip Auslander, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatised Culture (London: Routledge, 1999), 24.