A resident, with his whole body covered in mud and donning dried Banana leaves, collects candles. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
The village’s Taong Putik, or ‘Mud People’ festival, dates back to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in the 1940s. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
Japanese troops in Bibiclat during the Second World War gathered male villagers in a church courtyard for execution. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
The women and children prayed to Saint John the Baptist to spare them, and suddenly there was a rainstorm, causing the soldiers and their captives to scatter, the village’s barangay captain, Norberto Eugenio says. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
The villagers were elated and they rolled in the mud, he said, and have carried on that tradition ever since. Ritchie B Tong / EPA
During the festival, men, women and children — some covered with capes from head to foot, eyes peering from a cake of mud on their faces — collect candles from bystanders along the village’s main street on their way to St John the Baptist’s Church. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
Devotees light candles and make wishes, expecting them to be fulfilled because of their efforts. Ritchie B Tongo / EPA
The former parish priest of the village, William Villviza, said the mud also “reminds one of the lowness of one’s being” and enables one to be “close to the earth.” Lorgina Minguito / Reuters
A devotee collects candles. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
Residents collect candles before attending mass. Bullit Marquez / AP Photo
