ORGANIZERS of the traditional Traslación for the commemoration of the Feast of Black Nazarene on Wednesday expressed confidence that this year’s procession will be more orderly and take a shorter time, with the introduction of reforms like the setting up of prayer stations.
In an ambush interview, Quiapo Church parochial priest Fr. Daniel “Danichi” B. Hui said they expect the traditional procession will end within 21 hours, or 30 minutes earlier compared to the last two years.
“It started 5:15 a.m….We expect it will end by 2:30 a.m. tomorrow [January 10],” Hui said.
In 2018, it took 22 hours for the procession to complete its route in Manila, while in 2017 it was slightly longer with 22 hours and 19 minutes. Hui based his estimates on the impact of the “Devotee’s Pledge,” which they only introduced this year.
The pledge, which was held after the morning prayer, compelled devotees to kneel down and to promise to follow rules set by the Traslación organizers and calmly observe the procession.
Hui said the measure successfully “pacified” the devotees during the transfer of the image of the Black Nazarene to the andas or carriage, which will take it back to the Quiapo Church.
The process now only took five minutes compared to the 30 minutes in previous years.
Hui said they are also now banking on the effect of the prayer stations, which they set up for the second year along the route of the Traslación.
He noted the prayer stations helped disperse the number of devotees from the Quirino Grandstand to the stations and minimized those who followed the procession, allowing for faster movement of the andas.
As of 6 a.m., the police reported only around 800,000 people accompanied the andas—lower than its expected 5 million.
“This was because many of them decided to just wait for it in the prayer stations,” Hui said.
Image credits: Roy Domingo