Religious Iconography & Messages In Manila
These messages are seen quite frequently when one is driving around Manila. They are on huge billboards, on jeepneys, cars & trucks, and incorporated into the signage on various businesses. I assume they reflect an aspect of the belief system and character of a large sector of the population. To a westerner like myself they seem absurd, naive, ludicrous, and a bit hard to believe that anyone could take them seriously. I expect the majority of people viewing them on this website will have a similar reaction. It’s worth adding that so far no religious zealot has interfered with my own person. However I do resent any activity where religious types spill their ideologies out in a public way.
Mary Mary, Quite Contrary – Jesus Jeepney – God Signs
The images are all taken with an iPhone and except for the sign boards, both the photographer and the object being photographed are in motion on the highway. It often results in a rather interesting framing combination of the focal point along with the vehicle I am in, and a variety of background elements: (the jeepney driver – at least his arm, the images behind the driver’s door, even the tires and other bits of traffic). Not always great focus, but if opportunity presents itself I will re-photograph the vehicle, hoping for a better image.
More Mary images here in the Philippines than ones of Jesus. We have Mary on Jeepneys, Mary on illuminated billboards, Mary statues, some connected with churches, some “lifesize”, others quite enormous. You just never know when Mary will pop up! Plant nurseries often have a Mary statue niche, while even the community center/swimming pool at the subdivision we live in has one. Mary seems to “appear” when you least expect it, at least until you know the lay of the land.
Sometimes it’s Jesus & Mary, side by side. Joseph gets almost no billing. In those fairly rare depictions of all three it’s hard not to wonder who Joseph thinks the father was.
Yes, these all seem pretty absurd, probably even to a somewhat educated Catholic. What do the mean? To the simple minded, barely uneducated masses? And how do I see them?
Mary seems to represent compassion and gentleness, epitomised by a mother with her baby. Both the depictions of Mary and Jesus are generally the standard ones that emerged on an industrial level for home decoration. A statement of a family’s purported religious identity. Whether people pray before them I do not know for sure, but the location of plaques, statues and paintings suggests they serve as a kind of household shrine.
As for the jeepneys there are at least three obvious generations. The oldest have little or no imagery and a spare tire is fixed to the outside of the driver’s door. The second wave of jeepneys, the ones with all the incredible gaudy paintings probably date from the 1960’s forward. The newest types are actually small buses, just with information about their routing. They seem uniform and probably hold the same number of passengers as can be squeezed into the older models – say 20-25-30. The roofs of the two older types are quite low. Made for the height of your average Filipino, about 5 feet. For someone like myself (5ft. 11inches) my head reaches the ceiling and I must distort my neck and torso to see out the window. Certainly uncomfortable but incredibly cheap and always with a fascinating in communal spirit.
Jesus and Mary usually look Caucasian – white skin, often even blue-eyed. Mary is almost always much the same unless the image was derived from an old icon. Jesus image often reflects his suffering, a suffering no doubt shared in many ways by the millions of extremely poor Filipinos. That for sure is the message they are meant to feel. Suffer! Suffer as he suffered on the cross.
The building I live in has a statue of a sitting Buddha in the entrance hall. I was rather pleased to see it there, instead of a Jesus or Mary figure. However around the third week of October suddenly Buddha was pushed off of his base and replaced by a rather tacky manger scene. During the week to 10 days it took to assemble the manger statues, lighting and trappings, Buddha was covered up by cardboard packing material (probably from the manger scene). It sent a message of being somewhat less than respectful. Now at least the area has been cleaned up and Buddha is facing the manger set-up.
