A few years ago especially when I was still younger, whenever Good Friday would come and even as early as Thursday, gangs of self flagellators, the poor ones that blindly does it believing that they would be forgiven if they hurt themselves in the name of religion, goes by along the road beside our house.
I do not know where they are assembling from or where they come from but they are always on their way in front of Catholic churches where they would lay face down on a cross position where they are whipped unpainfully with dried coconut palm ribs.
Then after that after passing through several churches they will go straight to the river where they would bathe and then it is done. A refreshing bathe into our pristine river water here just refreshes them, cutting the misery that they went through the roads where they walked barefoot in the blistering heat of the pavement.
Actually the painful part is the walking with bare feet because whipping their backs for quite some time along the journey desensitizes their backs from pain but not from the heat of the pavement against their feet unless they come across a shaded or wet area where their feet will get some rest.
Mother had the bad job of videographing the flagellant gangs because they are walking very fast. Sometimes I see from the former years some that are quite dancing along with the rhythmic strikes of their implements on their backs, very entertaining to see as you don't see that everyday.