Christians hang on crosses and self-harm to relive crucifixion on Good Friday

Christian followers underwent self-flagellation and were left bloodied after reenacting Jesus Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday.

A large crowd, consisting of both Filipinos and tourists, gathered in the village of San Pedro Cutud in the Philippines to observe Ruben Enaje, 64, and two other devotees being nailed to crosses. Enaje has participated in this event 36 times.

Individuals dressed as Roman soldiers hammered nails through the palms of the participants, who were then lifted onto crosses with the help of ropes and fabric.

He could be seen in striking, gory images wearing a crown of thorny twigs and a white sheet around his waist as he stared out towards the jaw-dropped crowds.

Photographs from the macabre celebrations also show people drenched in blood with gashes in their skin after rhythmically flogging their backs with strips of bamboo tied to ropes.

Dozens of bare-chested flagellants wearing black shrouds and crowns made of vines walked barefoot through dusty, narrow streets, whipping themselves until they were covered in wounds, their blood soaking the top of their trousers and spattering onlookers. 

The practice, which was also seen carried out in Mexico and San Fernando, took hold about 60 years ago as form of religious vow by poor people seeking forgiveness, a cure for illness and the fulfilment of other wishes.

Some lay face down on the ground to be whipped and beaten by others, razor blades sometimes used to draw blood. 

The whippings are the opening act of street plays performed by devout residents. 

‘The first five seconds were very painful. As time goes and the blood goes down, the pain numbs and I can stay on the cross longer,’ Enaje said.

The real-life reenactments have become an annual spectacle drawing tourists to rural communities in the Pampanga province, north of Manila.

Arnold Maniago, 46, Enaje’s ‘successor’, was also nailed to the cross for the 22nd time on Friday. 

The gory ritual was resumed in 2023 after a three-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has turned Enaje into a local celebrity for his recurring role as ‘Christ’ in the Lenten reenactment of the Way of the Cross.

But the Philippines was not the only country to display a re-enactment of the brutal crucifixion.

Lebanese men were photographed in the village of Qrayyeh carrying large wooden crosses as they donned white robes and mock crowns of thorns.

As they paraded through the sandy streets, other worshippers dressed in red and yellow Roman costumes trailed behind as they whipped the individual playing Jesus Christ.

Incredible images show the man beaten to the ground, laying atop the cross as he takes lashings in a demonstration of belief and religious devotion.

One man in Mumbai, India, was also pictured screaming in agony as a crown of thorns were pressed into his bloody head. 

Lines of blood were seen dripping down his face as he carried a huge wooden cross on his back as costumed soldiers trailed behind. 

Although Christians make up only 2.4 per cent of India’s huge population, worshippers still put on the powerful displays that wind through the streets in public processions. 

In the Philippines, Enaje said previously that he has considered stepping back from the crucifixion role due to his age, but explained that he could not turn down requests from villagers for him to pray for sick relatives and ‘all other kinds of maladies’. 

During last year’s appearance, Enaje said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea, saying the need for prayers had deepened in an alarming period of conflict worldwide. 

Enaje remained nailed up for more than 10 minutes last March as storm clouds gathered overhead. It began to rain as he was carried on a stretcher to a medical tent where his wounds were bandaged.

‘I feel no pain in my hands but my body as a whole feels sore,’ Enaje said.

‘The Passion Play was longer this year because we lengthened the script. Maybe that was why my body feels sore.

The public Good Friday processions, also known as ‘passion plays’ often take viewers through the Stations of the Cross – the series of events that led to Jesus’ death, starting with his trial in front of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and ending with his entombment, according to the Bible. 

Re-enactments of Jesus’ crucifixion in the heavily Catholic Philippines are famous for their blood-soaked Good Friday rituals.

Enaje earlier shared that he began the crucifixion after he miraculously dodged death when he fell at a construction site when he was 25-years-old. 

He said it was important for him to make a ‘sacrifice’ to thank God for his ‘second life’. 

The 64-year-old extended the ritual after loved ones recovered from serious illnesses, one after another, and he landed more carpentry and sign-painting job contracts. 

The carpenter told Review of Religions: ‘It all started in 1985, when I fell from the third floor of a building and miraculously escaped death. 

‘At that moment, I made a vow to God that I will make a sacrifice to pay for my second life; I wanted to do that by re-enacting the act of the crucifixion as thanksgiving. One year after my accident, I joined the Senakulo (re-enactment of crucifixion), where I carried the cross to the Burol (Hill of Crucifixion).

‘From what I have heard from my grandfather, the re-enactment rituals have been carried out in the Philippines since 1945 or the 1950s (basically after the Japanese left after WWII)’. 

Around 80 per cent of the Philippines’ 110 million people identify as Roman Catholics. 

The rituals form part of Holy Week, which spans from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and is one of the most sacred and solemn periods in the Philippines’ religious calendar.

During Holy Week, some devotees flog their backs repeatedly with bamboo whips in an act of self-flagellation to seek penance and atonement. 

The Catholic Church has discouraged the practice, saying prayers and sincere repentance are enough to commemorate Lent.