Feast of the Black Nazarene

In Quiapo, Manila, Philippines, every 9th of January, thousands of Black Nazarene devotees flock the Quiapo Church, barefoot, to see and get a hold of the four-centuries old wooden, black, life-size statue of Jesus Christ.

Catholic devotees believe that if you are able to touch or wipe a handkerchief or small towel to the blessed wooden model of the Black Nazarene or even just touch the rope that leads the Black Nazarene, all your prayers will be answered.

Hundreds will testify that when they devoted themselves to this tradition, their prayers were answered. Some get healed, some get to find work, some get money, almost all kinds of wishes and hopes were believed to be fulfilled by God because of the wooden statue that was brought here by Spaniards from Mexico.

Devotees come from different parts of the Philippines. Most of them are old people who have been going to this procession for years. Young ones are mostly children of whose parents were also devotees. Even the vice president of the Philippines, Noli De Castro, is a devotee of the Black Nazarene.

Thousands of policemen and hundreds of medical teams are always on stand-by when this procession starts. The procession is dangerous for frail women and children as hundreds of men push their way to the statue.