Flagelacion in Mexico

When I spent some time in Mexico around year 2000, I had an opportunity to witness a very interesting religious ceremony.  Many people are familiar with the religious practice of flagellation.  This is where the participants whip themselves with steel studded cords usually on their own backs.

This particular ceremony happened in Tzin Tzun Tzan, a small town near Morellia in the state of Michoacan Mexico.  The name of the town is not in Spanish and there are many people who still speak their indigenous native language.

The idea of this self mutilation is based on 'giving penitence'. Also, some will say its an act of cleansing themselves of sin.  This type of ceremony of giving pain, or punishing themselves can be seen in many different cultures.

Many will dismiss this kind of ceremony as 'barbaric' or 'ignorant'.  But after spending the entire night (it went on from around 11pm till 7am) I understood a bit more.  It was a bit uneasy photographing this event, since I had no idea about this before.  My guide just told me to have respect for the people and try not to get in the way. Very simple.

 

So this is how it was done. The participants volunteer to do this. Maybe they have somebody who is sick in their family, want to repent their sins or they just feel that they need to prove to themselves that they can do it.  Whatever it is, the reasons are personal.  They wear the hood to hide their identity. Also they wear the same loose clothing. They are also don't talk through out the ceremony. The reason is to get rid of the idea of the "self".  For that night you are just a person who is giving penitence to God.  Having the anonymity, they are also free from judgment from others.

They carry the heavy wooden cross and run to these 'prayer stations' spread all over the town. I think there were around 20 stations.  At each station the participant unloads the wooden cross to the helper and prays on their knees. After about 3-5 minutes of prayer, they stand up and steps front and back while whipping their backs about a dozen times. 

They have an entourage of 2-3 people who helps the participants. They are to never touch the participant, to signify that this is to be done with their own strength.  The helper holds the cross while the participant prays and flog themselves. They are not to talk to the participants or among themselves.  The cross should never touch the ground. If any of these rules are broken, they have to start from the beginning since the meaning of the ceremony has been broken. 

This is test of endurance and threshold of pain.  Following these men at late night in complete silence with only sounds of heavy timber being dragged on the dirt ground was surreal. 

On the photography aspect, It was a challenge to photograph them without causing too much commotion.  I was shooting two 35mm film bodies one loaded with Fuji color neg and the other with Kodak TMZ 3200 black and white. The color film was only 400 iso so I needed flash.  I used Lumedyne system synced with a infrared slave system. I had an assistant hold the unit away from me at a certain distance.  I measured off the distance beforehand since I know that there will be no time to meter the light during the shoot. This is before chimping on the LCD screens! 

I did not want to blast them with bright flash and ruin their night sight.  Can you imagine if I make them fall so they have to start all over again! What do you say to them if that happens?  That's why my guide made it very clear that I have to have utmost respect when photographing them.

This ceremony is an all day and night event. During the day, the participants goes through hours of ritual before running all night carrying the heavy cross and flogging themselves.  

This is the procession before the participants take to the streets.  Thousands of people, shoulder to shoulder walk through the street in complete silence. The statue of Jesus is made out of cane and some are very old. 

This was taken around 3am. A 50mm 1.4 Pentax SMC with TMZ 3200. Great combo.

When photographing this young man, the helpers looked at me, not with threatening eyes but more of stern warning as if to say, 'this is a sacred moment for this person please have respect and don't disturb him'. 

We may never understand this man.  But we should make at least an effort to understand, and if we can't do that, then respect their choice. 

I may be stretching things a bit when I say this, but I used to think people who puts themselves through 5-8 hours of running, biking, swimming was crazy.  They cross the finish line trembling, crying and in severe pain.   Why do they put themselves through such agony and pain? There is something other than fitness that they are after.  So why do these people whip themselves and carry heavy crosses for hours?  

Sure, whipping themselves till they bleed may be more of a harsh form of testing oneself, compared to a marathon, but my point is isn't it along similar lines? Putting our bodies to great stress for some kind of benefit? If there wasn't any benefit who would do it?  So what is that benefit? I don't know, but I have a feeling that the answer may be surprisingly similar to both groups.