Today is my Day! [Slight Religious content, Atheists beware]

Ah yes, as I'm typing this, it's already January 9th, 1:47AM to be exact

In about 11 hours or so I shall again engage in the most absurd (for you adamant Atheists out there), violent & dangerous ritual in my life. Once again I shall battle with throngs of millions of fellow devotees & in THE WORST CASE SCENARIO (which is fun by the way LOL!) get trampled or be the one who tramples other people as I fight my way to a 400 year old wooden image of Jesus Christ which is being processioned in a sea of pandemonium stricken devotees. The purpose? Silly as it is, to get to wipe a piece of handkerchief on the idol's face to receive blessings for a good year

Yes, yes it's religious bull, but one I devotedly follow as today is the Feast Day of the Black Nazarene of Manila & incidentally is also my birthday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nzEqpP2ngs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlNgQgORlPM

That's how it was always been, ever since I can remember, me spending my birthdays risking life & death on a silly tradition. I never had a typical birthday where children get to have a party with cake & presents & a douchey magician or clown would be entertaining them. At first, as a kid I found my way of celebrating a rip off as in the most part no one ever knew that it is my birthday, well except me being absent, or cutting school if the 9th was a school day.

I know I've said that I am an Agnostic all this time & this is one of the few religious things I "still" hold onto.

Call it absurd if you will, but it's no more as absurd as the Running of the Bulls in Spain, or that tomato fight festival in Europe or that log riding ceremony in Japan.

Sure this "irrationality" has led to deaths yearly, but it's part of a tradition that is a part of who I am.

So let me shout out just once...

"Viva Nuestra Padre Jesus Nazareno!"

Here's hoping I'm still alive or un-injured & get to log back in later in the day!

LOL!

 

Hope you have some extra spiky cleats on .
Maybe you could pull the Dead Rising deal, where you walk across the backs of the people.
Still, good luck, a lot of people are going to need blessings this year, and they'll bring a curse to get a blessing.

 

i'm not an atheist, and i'm not a catholic too but that Black Nazarene is kinda' scary and i agree the purpose is quite silly. i've seen it in quiapo and wth look at the crowd, it's pretty huge.
so anyway, happy birthday cahos

 

Getting old are you? ;p

Hmm, it sounds a good tradition to me.
The chance to seriously harm christians without charges and the chance to damage a picture of Jewsus.

 

^ Atheists alert!!

 

Oi! I'm agnostic.

 

...It does seem absurd, but it's one's choice to get involved in such events right?


I suspect you'll be back CRV, well I hope you do...just making a topic about how much we'd miss you would be hard enough to think about-let alone actually post it


I bid good luck CRV, for if you have faith (in what your doing)...you'd be just fine.



...I'd only enter this if I had battle armour and a cattle prod, I'm too chicken to enter this traditionally

...Not that I am, but that's kinda...I dunno...poking fun at religion in some form...we need to be careful of the religious nature here.

I'm not religious I just happen to respect those who have faith.


*fellow users, look past the absurd nature of the event and wish CRV/cahos good luck and that he'd return safe and sound, for only one so brave to enter deserves our FULL support regardless of what religion you are...it's an act of faith and bravery.

 

(Quoted from HYpNoS)
*fellow users, look past the absurd nature of the event and wish CRV/cahos good luck and that he'd return safe and sound, for only one so brave to enter deserves our FULL support regardless of what religion you are...it's an act of faith and bravery.

Well put chief. I already wished him well, I suspect he'll be back on soon.

 

No comment on the procession. Haha.
Happy birthday! Have a good one.

 

Hi guys

Actually I got home four hours ago, but I was so dead tired. As usually the procession was crazy & I did my "only religious dues" with merely an aching shoulder as somebody managed to climb on my shoulders before I could climb onto theirs LOL!

Anyway:

Haha I really wished I could have borrowed a star from Mario for the trip

That log riding festival is even scarier, imagine getting run over &/or crushed by several tons of redwood as it slides down a hill.

I expected Remnoca to post here & I expected him to react that way, because that's just who he is & I respect him for that.

to hYpNoS & MysticMaja: Thanks for the greet outs, it's much appreciated

Anyway, I'll be locking this thread up in three hours so for those who'll feel bad to not have greeted me by then, do know that it's pretty much appreciated.

 

Happy day of being birthed. Now that you're older than me, do your bones creek like a rusty screwdriver? I'm going gray already . Guess I'll have a prune smoothie and wait for mother nature to sucker punch me in the gut.

 

I'm no follower of the Black Nazarene but what I can tell from what you wrote is that you go full speed ahead for your religion. Good luck with what you plan to do in your life and Happy Birthday.

 

You know growing my first gray hair is actually THE one sign of aging I anxiously await. I like how a few gray hairs make black (or in my case dark brown) hair look glossy & shiny, as if you just got out of the shower.

I have this cousin, who at his early twenties already had a few gray hairs on his head & I was all too jealous how kewl his hair looked

If you can call Agnosticism a religion then yes I do go all out with it. You see, I am Agnostic & don't practice any one religion, but I believe in various things other religions teaches like the concept of Re-incarnation in Buddhism & Hinduism. As well as believing in the elemental & primal forces in nature that Shintoism & Animism believes in. And yeah, I also believe in the Wiccan creation theory as well.

 

Leave it to you, to put a positive backspin on something like aging. That shows true wisdom, and that transcends any numerical figure representing age.

 

Why should you fear aging, or death for that matter? It's just part of who we are as a being in this planet

What happens after death, we can never tell as we still haven't reach that turning point. But what is important is the now, cherishing each day as it passes slowly

 

Never been afraid of death Cahos. Truth be told, I'm more afraid to live than die. It's good to stay positive in all situations, and having the ability that you have, makes life so much easier. I, on the other hand, tend to be pessimistic, I never believe that something good will happen. I am trying to change, but right now I'm taking small and sure steps.

 

That's what you think LOL!

I too have pessimistic thoughts & quite frankly I'm not the aggressive type who goes all out in life. I'm, just happy with what comes my way whether be it good or bad. And yeah, I tend to get frustrated, irritated & annoyed easily too.

 

It's called humility, being able to be happy&content with what you have. It's Ok to want more out of life, but being able to suffice with a little, will help you should the days revert back to how they were many, many years ago.

 

Thanks guys, especially to you dedboy

I've got to go now even though it's still thirty or so minutes before it's exactly three hours since I said I'd lock this, so I'll just have to lock it just the same.

Until next year folks