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- Title:
- Holy Week Abstinence
- Description:
- The expedition to the Spice Islands with Magellan in command experienced Holy Weeks in 1520, 1521, and 1522. Conforming to the Catholic rituals was important to the crew. Their lives were constantly in peril, especially from storms and hunger. The first Palm Sunday was 8 months into their provisions to last 2 years. They had anchored at St. Julian port in Argentina where autumn was starting in the Southern Hemisphere. The geese and sea-wolves they hunted as fresh food were penguins and seals, respectively. In 1521, Palm Sunday was at Homonhon Island, Samar form where on Holy Monday they sailed south. By Good Friday, March 29 according to Pigafetta's reckoning, they were in Mazaua (Limasawa) of Southern Leyte. Their Easter Sunday was celebrated with a meal of two swine given by Datus Colambu and Siauri. The meal was cooked on board. The last Holy Week (with Elcano now skippering the Victoria) found them somewhere in the Indian Ocean where on April 16 they headed north to Africa. Modern calculations identify March 26, 1522 as Easter Sunday. There was no feasting. The men were suffering inanition and catabolysis: the effects of extreme starvation. Whatever provisions they had loaded in Tidore, the center for clove, had deteriorated or been consumed. Their Philippine Holy Week, with Magellan still alive, was the friendliest of their foreign Easters.
- Subjects:
- Ferdinand Magellan Sebastian Elcano Antonio Pigafetta Datu Colambu Datu Siauri Spice Islands Argentina Homonhon Island, Samar Limasawa Mazaua Leyte Tidore
- Exhibition:
- Magellan Menu
- Source:
- Commemorative collectible for the Quincentennial
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/png
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Holy Week Abstinence", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll003.html