Aux Philippines, le vendredi Saint ou Balack Friday est un jour qui porte malheur. Peu de transport en commun et taxi.
Travel Tips During the Holy Week Holidays
Very few businesses open on full hours starting Maundy Thursday. Government offices are closed until Good Friday, and almost all commercial establishments, including shopping malls, are closed for the entire day. Public transportation is scarce on Good Friday. Regular trips and regular business hours resume on Black Saturday.
Accommodations during Holy Week are often booked months in advance, especially in prime beach destinations like Boracay and Palawan. Holy Week coincides with peak summer season so hotel rates are more expensive than usual.
Holiday goers start preparations on Holy Wednesday, so by Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, major thoroughfares can be extremely clogged with slow-moving traffic. Beach destinations start to fill up on Maundy Thursday.
Filipinos working in major urban centers often go home for Holy Week celebrations. This means that there is massive movement of people from Manila, Cebu, Davao and other major cities to the provinces. Air, land and sea transport are booked weeks in advance, but overbooking sometimes occurs in land and sea carriers. While every precaution is taken by local enforcement authorities to ensure that conveyances are not overloaded, less scrupulous transport operators could sometimes get away with overloading resulting to road mishaps or marine disasters. Hence, it is critical to exercise caution when boarding suspiciously overloaded vessels.
This urban exodus is reversed on Black Saturday and Easter Sunday, when people from the provinces go back to their jobs in the cities. The same issues in transportation arise as millions of Filipinos beat the clock and each other to get to their destinations on time.
Traditionally, major thoroughfares are blocked and transformed into the Way of the Cross. Increasingly, the colorful and sometimes lavish processions of Catholic statues from Maundy Thursday until Black Saturday have become tourist attractions in themselves, creating additional pressure on the condition of the traffic. Consider this scenario when going from one place to another during the holidays.
In sum, the Semana Santa is one Philippine holiday you must experience to get a more well-rounded understanding of the country’s customs, values, beliefs and heritage. Filipinos are largely shaped by their faith, and no other holiday depicts them more colorfully (and realistically) than the Holy Week.
Below are two Philippines Travel Guide Videos for Holy Week :