The Good Friday procession in Carcar City, Cebu is perhaps one of the grandest in the island province. Several heirloom Lenten images once again prepared and paraded along the streets of this southern city. On the most solemn day of Semana Santa, age-old images trace the old streets, continuing a tradition that has lasted for more than a century. It’s one of the best examples too of Lenten activities in the Philippines.
Good Friday procession in Carcar
At last year’s Holy Week (2025), I visited the city of Carcar to do a short documentation of the Good Friday procession there. I’ve done this before and posted about the processions in Carcar and Angeles in 2011. But the difference was that during that time, I only arrived in the evening from Argao as the carroza of the Senor Santo Entierro arrived back in the church. This time, I arrived around 2 PM and walked around, observing and taking photos as people prepared the carrozas. Later in the afternoon, they transported the carrozas to the public plaza in front of the church, where they assembled the images before the Good Friday procession.
The grand Senor Santo Entierro carroza
Carcar perhaps has one of the grandest Santo Entierro carrozas in the entire country. It’s tall, and bedecked with flowers and highly decorated. In Cebuano, it is the haya, the Christ, lying in state. It is an antique image, and its camarero owns the Balay nga Tisa, built in 1859. I believe the image dates to around that same year, give or take a year or two.
Seeing the carroza of the Senor Santo Entierro during the Good Friday procession, well lighted, grand and in its full glory, will fill you with awe and apt reverence!
