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Article: Holy Week in the "Heart of the Philippines": spirituality, theatre, and community in Marinduque's Moriones Festival.
- Article from:
- Asian Theatre Journal
- Article date:
- September 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 University of Hawaii Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The week-long Moriones Festival on the island of Marinduque, south of Manila, weaves together a complex mix of events including street theatre, processions, religious ceremonies, and a three-night sinakulo that dramatizes the history of salvation with a focus on the Christ story. Present throughout the week's events are the morions, caged and elaborately costumed local men enacting a vow or panata, whose identities are disguised by large headpieces and full face carved masks meant to resemble Roman centurions. The leading morion is the Roman centurion Longinus, who according to apocryphal sources, was the lance-wielding soldier present at the crucifixion and whose sight ...