MEDIUM RARE
Holy Mother Church calls it Black Saturday. On my wall calendar, courtesy of a bank, the designation of Black Saturday is augmented with the declaration of “special holiday” (whereas Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are regular holidays).
A “black” day, going by liturgical tradition, does not mean black vestments for the priest and the sacred images displayed in the church. If black stands for the gloom of Lent, the color for which is purple, it’s purple for Black Saturday. Palm Sunday and Good Friday were red, to symbolize the blood of martyrs. The glory of the Resurrection tomorrow, Easter Sunday, is signified by white (like Christmas).
In my youth, Black Saturday, the day between the penance of Good Friday and the joys of Easter, meant a hiatus from the somber tone of Holy Week transiting to a weekend to be spent on the beach or a trip to cooler climes like Tagaytay. Today’s generation of parents have much more ingenious ideas of where to take their kids for the longed-for long weekend.
There are more places to go, more expressways to quicken the drive without shortening the hours; a paradox of the time-and-space conundrum? For me and the child and his former classmate who are staying put in the hot and humid weather of the NCR, the Ortigases’ newly built GH (Greenhills) Mall in the city of San Juan is as good an escape route as any to cool off. Providing every convenience and a range of efficient customer/consumer services, the months-old mall comes blessed with high ceilings, plus, it’s vast enough to give the impression that there aren’t that many mall crawlers for you to jostle with. The floors practically gleam with newness, a silent “thank you” to the janitor with his mop and the attentive attendants in the ladies’ room.
As we dyed-in-the-wool Big City dwellers know, the best time to be in Metro Manila is the Holy Week. Traffic is less challenging, streets look like streets, not a Carmageddon, and the general population move with less stress on their faces and in their movements.
What’s not to like about the city? The hot, dry weather at home, which means bigger bills to pay the electric company for the luxury of airconditioning.