The Magdarame of Angeles City: Blood, Faith, and Choice

Every Holy Week in Angeles City, Pampanga, a group of men known as the Magdarame walk through the streets and whip their own backs until they bleed. It's completely by choice — no one forces them into it, and for the men who take part, this isn't a performance. I traveled to the Philippines to see this centuries-old tradition up close. What stayed with me was how different each man's reason was. Some do it to ask forgiveness. Some do it to give thanks for a miracle. Some made a vow — if someone they love got better, they would carry this out themselves. The Magdarame take their name from a local word that roughly means "those who suffer." Watching the ritual play out on the street, that's exactly what it looked like: not a show, but raw, living faith, carried out in public because that's where the vow gets kept. It's one of those traditions in the Philippines that's genuinely hard to process from behind a camera.