A re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ resumed on Good Friday in the Philippines after a three-year halt due to COVID-19.
The Good Friday tradition is rejected by the Catholic church but draws huge crowds of devotees and tourists to the Philippines, an Asian bastion of Christianity.
Devotees, wearing thorny crowns of twigs, carried heavy wooden crosses on their backs for more than a kilometre in the scorching heat.
Village actors dressed as Roman centurions then hammered 10-centimetre stainless steel nails through the devotees' palms and feet, then set them aloft on a cross under the sun for about 10 minutes.
Church leaders in the Philippines have frowned on the crucifixions and self-flagellations, saying Filipinos can show their deep faith and religious devotion without hurting themselves and by doing charity work instead, such as donating blood.
