Culture and color: Marinduque and the Moriones Festival

While the rest of the Philippines commemorates Holy Week with somber television shows and quiet visits to church, Marinduqueños dress up in rainbow-colored centurion costumes and caricature-like wooden masks.

The procession
The Moriones Festival is an annual recreation of the the life of Saint Longinus; the word ‘morion’ means ‘mask.’ Longinus was the half-blind centurion tasked with driving a spear into the side of Jesus. When Jesus’ blood touched him, Longinus’ vision returned. He then converted to Christianity and turned his back on his fellow centurions.

The weeklong festival begins on Palm Sunday and culminates on Easter Sunday. During this week, participants brave the heat in full centurion garb, looking for the fugitive Longinus.

The townspeople play along and allow the man playing Longinus to hide in their houses. According to a local guide, there was one year when the local officials started to worry because they couldn’t find their Longinus. Turns out a family had kept him busy with food and tuba (coconut wine).

After several captures, escapes, and recaptures, Longinus bravely and peacefully accepts his beheading. The mood of the festival is bittersweet, the sad story being tempered by the bright costumes decorated with colored foil and flower motifs.

The panata
For Marinduqueños, joining the festival is a panata—an expression of devotion, sacrifice and thanksgiving to God. The traditional masks are carved from trunks of wood, in a process that takes up to a month; the P5,000 price tag that comes with it is no laughing matter to residents who make a living fishing and farming.

This mask-maker shared that he, too, was once a morion in his younger days. The soft-spoken senior citizen learned to make his own mask because it was too expensive; his new panata is making masks for younger morions. It’s hard work - chipping away at the tough wood needs strength, getting the face right needs artistry.

Still, masks are bought and made each year by morions and mask-makers who see the sacrifice as a means of returning God’s favor. “Kasama talaga ito sa aming paniniwala,” he explained.

Making the most of the festival—and Marinduque
While the festival is nothing new to locals, tourists may find themselves lost or taken advantage of during the commotion. Bear in mind that there’s no entrance fee—just drop by the municipalities of Boac, Gasan and Mogpog, where the festival is observed.

You can book a room in The Boac Hotel for P800/night in the days leading up to Easter Sunday. Ask around to find out where the beheading will take place, wake up early on the day itself and head there after breakfast to catch the whole spectacle.

Missed this year’s Moriones Festival? Marinduque is still a great place for a weekend vacation.

While Holy Week thrusts the island province into the media every March, most of Marinduque is still waiting to be discovered. No tourist traps here yet, just clear waters, affordable dive spots, quaint hotels and great food.