The best way to observe Holy Week is to participate in the folk customs that give meaning to the celebration. One of them is the pabasa, which is a reading of Christ’s Passion. The Mass is the main commemoration and renewal of the death of our Savior, but most people just associate it with the Last Supper. The pabasa goes back to the very beginnings of our Christianization.
Three years ago, the University of Santo Tomas published Fr. Rodel Aligan’s book Pasyon and the book made clear the crucial role that the chanting of the Pasyon played in the Christianization of the Filipinos long before it became a chanted Lenten devotion. The book cites Gaspar Aquino de Belen’s Ang Mahal na Pasion ni Jesukristo Natin sa Tula published in 1703 as the very first Pasyon. It is the basis of the book now used in the Pabasa. It was written to teach and propagate Christianity before schools and books were widely disseminated. In short, our forefathers became Christians in response to, first, listening, and then chanting the Pasyon. Again, according to Fr. Aligan, the Pasyon was originally chanted at wakes in lieu of the pagan rituals of the pagan babaylans.
The Holy Hour is devotion for one hour’s duration consisting of exposition of the Blessed Sacraments, meditation, and vocal prayers, followed by Benediction. The pabasa is often recited as a novena and so starts two days before Holy Week and is uninterrupted for nine days! Usually it is done by two groups with one song leader each. The song leader of the first group wails the first sentence of a four-line stanza and the second group picks up the melody and ends the stanza. Then the second group leads the next stanza, and the first group provides the finishing touches.
Most pabasas begin on Holy Wednesday and continue non-stop till Black Saturday. It is difficult to visit any barangay that has no pabasa.
The pabasa is keeping up with the times. The young introduce modern music. Last year, a group used the melody based on the movie Titanic for the pabasa. And although it is a religious occasion, a lot of giggling and laughter takes place. The young laugh at the older people who wail without their dentures and at themselves when they cannot follow the harmony of their elders. When they need a rest, they simply go to sleep.
Don’t take the pabasa lightly. It is how Christian indoctrination began in our islands.