(24 Jun 2024)
PHILIPPENES MUD FESTIVAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTIONS:
LENGTH: 4.45
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nueva Ecija province, Philippines – 24 June 2024
1. Filipino devotees wearing dried banana leaves and covered with mud walking on rice paddies ++NIGHT SHOTS++
2. Various of devotees on rice paddies soaking themselves with mud ++NIGHT SHOTS++
3. Devotees wearing banana leaves and walking on street ++NIGHT SHOTS++
4. Woman giving candles to devotees ++NIGHT SHOTS++
5. Devotees wearing banana leaves walking on road ++NIGHT SHOTS++
6. Participants entering St John the Baptist church compound
7. Small flag pan down to hundreds of devotees wearing dried leaves and covered with mud during Mass
8. Various of devotees during Mass
9. 37-yr-old devotee Mar Aguilar with his family
10. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) Mar Aguilar, devotee.
“This has been our tradition every feast (of St John the Baptist), we wake up early to apply mud, we believe this helps us in our faith and if we need something it gets fulfilled by doing this.”
11. Devotees hearing Mass
12. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) Edvinyn Dela Cruz, devotee.
“When my daughter was just 8 months old, it’s like she got her second life, I brought her here to the church because her whole body was swollen, I prayed to our beloved St John and told him, St John please heal my daughter and every year I will devote myself to you. I have been doing his for 10 years.”
13. Father Elmer Villamayor giving communion to church goers
14. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) Father Elmer Villamayor, former parish priest.
“This tradition has been here 120-140 years but the devotees increased when the 1944 miracle happened.”
15. Monument of the 1944 miracle
16. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) Father Elmer Villamayor, former parish priest.
“The sun was shining then it rained very hard, the Japanese commander said to the community official, "You should thank your God because he saved you." For the Japanese it was a bad omen, but for the locals here it was an answered prayer of St John the Baptist because it rained and they were not executed. Since then the number of devotees grew.”
17. Various of devotees Man praying
STORYLINE:
LEAD IN:
Hundreds of Filipino devotees smothered in mud and wearing capes of banana leaves have taken part in a ritual to thank their patron saint, John the Baptist.
The mud people festival dates back to the 18th century, but it became popular during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines when locals believe a miracle saved the lives of men from a village that were about to be executed.
STORYLINE:
Bibiclat village in the northern Philippines Nueva Ecija province.
In the early hours of the morning, hundreds of people dressed in long capes made from banana leaves head for a swampy field where they smother themselves in mud.
They’re getting ready for a traditional Mass held in honour of their patron saint, St John the Baptist.
“This has been our tradition every feast (of St John the Baptist), we wake up early to apply mud, we believe this helps us in our faith and if we need something it gets fulfilled by doing this,” says devotee, Mar Aguilar.
The village’s “Taong Putik,” or “mud people” festival, dates back to the 18th century, but according to villagers, became more popular after what was believed to be a miracle during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in the 1940s.
In 1944, Japanese troops had gathered many of the male villagers in a Bibiclat church courtyard for execution by firing squad while terrified women and children prayed to Saint John to spare them.
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