January 9 each year is a special day in this particular part of Manila, the city’s geographic center known as Quiapo. This is the Feast of the Black Nazarene, that darkened Catholic icon which represented Jesus Christ carrying the cross that is beloved by many Catholics, a majority of which belong curiously to the male gender.
On a sociological level, such a deep, fanatical as some might say, devotion of Catholic men to the “Nazareno” (as the Black Nazarene is called) can be considered a peculiarity at the very least as commonly in the realm of the Catholic faith, it is the women who exhibit such devotion. The Urban Roamer has always wondered why it is so, but that should be a question best left to sociologists, theologians, or others more well-versed in this topic to answer.
