Good Friday, literally, Holy Friday.
This is the most important day of Mal and Kaldaw, Holy
Week. Prior to mass in the evening, the town is filled with
the sound of bamboo noisemakers kalakopak. During
the mass, the church is filled to capacity. There is no
communion in the mass on this night and the permanent
statues in front of the church are covered up with cloths.
Families who own their own large statues, birhin, bring
them to church decorated with flowers. After mass, there
is a procession around town, taking the statues along, with
the children and their noisemakers and a band of older men
playing the violin, banjo, and guitar. Then the statues are
taken to the homes of their owners. The owners furnish
drinks and snacks to all the people who come to visit
during the evening. There are also people who stay at the
church all night holding a vigil and guarding the
santisimo, the tabernacle-like box behind the altar
where the hostia, the Blessed Sacrament is kept.
Mal ang Kaldaw