Catholics in the Philippines celebrated Good Friday by having themselves displayed on crosses in a reenactment of Jesus' crucifixion, the Associated Press reported.
Thousands gather to witness the yearly crucifixions, a practice that has been condemned by church officials and health experts. Men wearing Roman soldier costumes use hammers to pound stainless steel nails into the palms and feet of the person on the cross.
Some do it after having a near-death experience. But in general, the willful crucifixions are a way for Filipino Catholics to purge their sins or show their appreciation to God, the AP reported.
The practice is most popular in the province of Pampanga in the country's north. A total of eight Catholics were crucified during the reenactment in the province's village of San Pedro Cutud.
"It's a personal matter between me and (God)," said 48-year-old Lasse Spang Olsen, who decided to partake in the reenactment after he fell ill twice, the AP reported.
Dressed in nothing but a white cloth and a green wreath around his head, Olsen, a filmmaker from Denmark, recorded the experience with a camera attached to his cross.
One Filipino, Ruben Enaje, 53, had himself crucified for the 28th time. Enaje, who paints signs, decided to attend the proceedings every year after he fell from a building, the AP reported.
The nation's health department, while not supporting the practice, has encouraged people to receive shots to prevent tetanus as a result of being crucified.
Religious officials in the Philippines, the largest Roman Catholic country in Asia, say those who participate in the reenactments don't always have pure intentions.
"If what you do makes you love others more, then it is pleasing to God," Archbishop Socrates Villegas, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, told the AP. "But if you do it for photographs, just to be famous, that is spiritual vanity."
