The belief behind the Black Nazarene Feast

We all know why the Nazarene is black.

Do we know why we do this?

And this?

And also this?

And this too?

Why do we feel it necessary to suffer before we get our heart's wishes?

Why do we feel we have to have a hard ordeal before we get to Nirvana.

Why do we feel that sacrifice is an offering that must be done in order to receive blessings?


Why does it feel okay, if not right, for us to risk our life and limb just to touch the cross, rope, clothing, statue of the Black Nazarene?

My grandmother (God bless her soul) once said about the Black Nazarene feast and the legion of devotees she saw on TV struggling to touch / get close to the statue (and this is a paraphrase):

"The Nazarene is in Quiapo church all 364 days of the year and they all have to flock to that one day when it isn't?"

My grandmother was religious and a devout Catholic. She even had a dream about the Black Nazarene and took it as a good sign. She even had a red-colored dress that she specially used to wear when she went to Quiapo church to hear mass.

But she didn't understand the `devotion' throngs of people have during the Black Nazarene feast and why they seem willing to hurl themselves to possible death just to touch it.

And suddenly I remember the story in the Bible about a sick woman who touched the cloak of Christ and was instantly healed. And I wonder, maybe that was what everyone wishes for when they attend the Black Nazarene feast.

Maybe everyone of us is hoping for a miracle.

Or maybe, we all have the deeply ingrained belief -  passed on to us from those that came before we did, the same beliefs the people that came before we did received from the people that came before the people that came before them did - that we really do have to suffer, we really have to sacrifice, we really have to give up our lives so we'll be happy or at least get what we want.

It is all beliefs then.

What keeps the tradition going is beliefs and expectations.

If we do X, we'll have Y.


Is that belief real then? Or do we make it all up?

“If it is not your truth, based on your experience, then don't believe it." 

                                                                                  Physicist Tom Campbell



I didn't believe in the Black Nazarene but I went to Quiapo church years ago with - and upon the advise of - an ex-friend during a time in my life where I was swimming in the deep end.

There was a line of people touching the statue one by one. I didn't expect anything nor was I hoping for anything. But when it was my turn to touch the statue, and finally did, I burst out crying.  For some reason, I couldn't stop. I was gasping, heaving.

Years later, I finally knew why.

Now, I have the sense that the reason why we have the feast is that it's the closest thing we have for us to experience our selves.

It's the only way for us to deal and face our "sins" "faults" and then seemingly "absolve" "clean" them.

Hoping that going barefoot, walking barefoot, struggling through the sea of people to touch the cloak/cross/rope of the Black Christ is enough of an expression to show how much we really mean what we're doing; how sincere we all are.

We're so sincere we don't care what will happen to us; we're so sincere to show our adoration, respect that we're offering our lives to do so.

It's us convincing ourselves that what we're doing matters; what we're doing works.

And if it does work, that's the truth for us.

But really, we know now what we're doing. But do we really know why?


Where did we get the idea that sacrifice is necessary before bliss?

Who said we have to suffer before we can get what we want?

What made us think that in order to be forgiven of our sins, we have to walk in dirt and suffer?

a)  The Catholic Church?

b) The generations that came before us?

c) Our families?

d) Our culture?

All of the above?


The better question then is, why did we believe them? Why do we still believe them? Are all these beliefs originally ours or theirs? and us who didn't know any better believed it too because we thought it's the right thing to do?

I sense the Black Nazarene feast is a metaphor for our own wish to touch that part of ourselves we think we can't reach; we think isn't there.

It's the Self we're denying; that part of our Self that is untouched by hurt, sickness, fear; it's that part that will never die. The only way to reach it we think is to project it something outside of ourselves that is just as unreachable or at least difficult to come near to.  Yet it is always there, all 364 days of the year. It stays in the same church, unmoving, steady, calm. And we can go there anytime we want to. But we decide to go touch it only once when we're very worked up and pumped up by the passion of our expectations, our fears, our dreams, our wishes. These fuel us to maybe, once I get near it or touch it, I will be okay and my wishes will come true,

If the Nazarene Feast has done these for you, then these are the truths for you as based on your experience.

Eventually, you'll maybe soon realize, the Feast is a tool we use to help us better ourselves or to see ourselves differently, positively for at least once in all 365 days of the year.