Angelito Domaoan, an Asinganian from New Jersey wrote:
Hi Vic: How old is Sonny Espejo? Yes everything he was telling was true. During Semana Santa we are not allowed to talk loud or make noise. I love to watch the procession during Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
I could still remember when Father Estrada. played a music on the speaker tied to the cross at the top of the church during Holy Thursday when suddenly a thunder and a flash of lightning knock out the speaker it came hurling on the ground the speaker and the cross. People were running and were shock of what happened.
THE MUSIC DIED THAT GOOD FRIDAY
by VICTORIO COSTES
Note: I was inside the church when the incident happened. here is my account of that incident.
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Each Good Friday celebration in Asingan could never be the same as the previous, or the forth coming one..On this particular Friday, some believe they saw the "wrath of God" on this day which marks the death of Jesus from Nazareth.
The day started liked the previous ones..In fact, the sun shone brightly even just as the day started. It was a good omen for the vendors at the churchyard, the modern day version of the "money changers at the temple.."
Siete Palabras ( Seven last words ) usually took place at around 3:00 pm on this day. But sometimein mid morning, the hornspeakers tied to the cross on top of the church started playing music..The Parish priest at that time LOVED music and he had a powerful PA system wired to these speakers which were heard in most of the barrios of Asingan. He used this sound system to wake up people for the December dawn masses, or to call them for the Patron Saint Novenas on October and several other occasions.
But loud music on a Good Friday? It was something which made many conservative and traditional elders in Asingan uncomfortable.
Even in church liturgy during those years, the altar bells would stop ringing during the middle part of the mass, only to ring again on Easter Sunday at 4:00 am. There will be that beautiful procession at dawn where two groups ( one would carry the image of Mary the Mother of Jesus and the other the image of the resurrected Christ ). Mother and Son would meet in front of the church and young Asingan girls dressed as angels would remove the black veil of mourning from Mary's face.. But our story is about Good friday, 2 days before the glorious Easter celebration..
To continue the story..The church yard again was very boisterous. People came to town but would stop short at the gate of the church. The candle vendors are having a field day. The game shows in the plaza are blaring out their their calls for players..It was really like the temple during the time of Jesus.
At 2:00 pm, I was already inside the church.I had to be early to find a good seat. It was terribly hot and humid inside, but outside was ten times worse. Not a breeze was blowing.
Then a wind started to stir things up. What's more in a few minutes I saw from the window that the sun was blocked by thick nimbus clouds. But the music was still going strong.
Even before the siete palabras started, people saw lightning streaking the darkened heavensfollowed by loud thunderclaps. . Then rain started to fall like stream of pebbles, clattering on the church galvanized iron roof. Soon, nothing could be heard except the raindrops on the church roof, howling winds which eventaully drowned the music from the loudspeakers..
All of a sudden a mother of all lightnings filled the church with light followed seconds later by a thunderous boom.It sounded like an exploding bomb..All people inside the church screamed. Many were scared shitless.!A minute later they heard a metallic crash like something fell from the roof of the church. Nobody could see what that was because all gates and windows were closed to prevent the water from coming in!
This time the people inside ( including me ) started praying so hard. I saw some old women crying. "My God, my God forgive all my sins..!" they kept repeating. I expressed the same sentiments too, but very silently.
For a while the storm outside raged like hell lashing out every fury it had. People were waiting for the church to cave in.
Then, the winds and rain stopped as sudden as it started. When the doors opened to clear the humid and saturated air inside the church, people rushed out. They gasped at what they saw outside.
The loudspeakers were lying on the front yard, together with the cross it was tied to. There were debris everywhere: leaves, paper,branches and whatever was there light enough for the wind to pick up. All the "pala-palas" were flattened, including all the gambling joints in the plaza! The sun was again shining bright as ever. There was a fresh smell in the air brought about probably by the lightning unloading its charge of ions from those thick storm clouds.
I rushed home. I did not stop even if I saw some kids pilfering the ravaged structures hoping maybe to find some money.
I was so elated to see our house still standing after that calamity. I rushed inside at once to look for my father and my mother. They were happy to see me safe and sound---#
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