THE HISTORY OF THE “PASYON”

     The Pasyon is a poetic narrative on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The text is always in the vernacular—Tagalog or any of several dozen native languages. Practitioners perform the Pasyon during the Roman Catholic Holy Week—Cuaresma or Semana Santa to the Filipino. Performers often participate as part of a panata or a religious vow passed on from generation to generation.
     The Pasyon is a uniquely Filipino tradition. Through clearly inspired Spanish passion plays, the Pasyon’s traditional practice of continuous a-ca­pella singing more closely resembles the epic songs and chants of indigenous Filipinos. Such lyricism is absent in Spanish and Mexican Lenten traditions.

     In 1704, Gaspar Aquino de Belen, a Filipino layman working for a Jesuit press in Manila, authored the first documented Tagalog Pasyon. The practice grew in popularity, as evidenced by a fifth edition in 1760. In 1804, illicit versions of the Pasyon began to appear. Spanish friars denounced these as heretical and profane. With the Pasyon, Filipinos took Catholicism and made it their own.
     In the 19th century, Mariano Pilapil, a native priest, sanitized illicit versions to produce the popular Pasyon Pilapil or Pasyon Henesis. Today, traditional Tagalog Pasyons most commonly use as text the Casaysayan ng pasiong mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon natin na sucat ipag-alab ng puso ng sinumang babasa (An account of the sacred passion of our Lord Jesus Christ which should inflame the heart of anyone who reads it), a later edition of a work by an unknown writer first published in 1814.
     Traditional passion plays espouse meekness and acceptance of suffering as personified by a Christ who willingly goes to his torture and death—docile values propagated by colonizers bent on pacification. However, newer reinterpretations of the Pasyon advocate a proactive and responsible religiosity with socially relevant themes and more humane portrayal of Christ. Tanghalang Santa Ana’s Martir sa Golgota shares this outlook. Its use of community talent as well as its theme reflects today’s issues.
     Just as Filipinos long ago appropriated Spanish passion play traditions to forge something truly indigenous with the use native languages, so too do today’s Filipinos use yesterday’s traditions to foster new values.