This year 2012, Papa, Bea and I decided to do our yearly tradition of Maundy Thursday's Visita Inglesia at Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, Antipolo City via the alay lakad.
Alay lakad is one of the Filipino religious traditions during Holy Week. It is practically and literally walking all the way to the Antipolo Cathedral. There were people quietly praying and even walking on barefoot - sans shoes or slippers as part of their panata; but sadly though, there were also a lot of people, mostly groups of teen-agers, whose sincerity was not reflected on their overly zealous and rabid actions.
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| Start from our house in Marikina City. |
Leaving our car behind, Jun was so worried if Bea and I would be able to make it as we were both 1st timers.
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| Stations of the Cross along Sumulong Hi-way . Each station would at least be 15-20 minutes away from each other. |
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| Bea smiling at Valley Golf and Country Club-Sumulong Hi-way Gate. |
To ensure devotees' safety, a lot of police officers and traffic enforcers were visible in the streets from Masinag all the way up to the Antipolo Cathedral.
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| Bea, still smiling near Padi's Point. |
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| Maybe you've already noticed Bea's closed eyes. It was actually due to my camera's flash. |
In between and every station, there were residents and establishments who offered drinking water and some even had nilagang saging na saba for free.
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| 8th Station and still smiling :-) |
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| 11th Station |
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| 13th Station (major intersection) |
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| P. Oliveros Street - road leading to the Cathedral.. |
This was the place where the people from Ortigas Extention and Sumulong Hi-way all converged and met. The whole stretch of P. Oliveros Street was occupied by so many people hence traffic was really, really heavy and slow.
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Altar of the
Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage |
At the end of the very long 4-hour and uphill walk to Antipolo, a bowl of hot chicken sotanghon soup always awaits! ;-)
The Alay Lakad was generally peaceful and orderly considering the countless tired and exhausted devotees. To this we say, doing it again next year would probably be all worth the effort and sacrifices. Amen.