Two priests get themselves busy blessing a sea of Sto. Niño images during the first Novena Mass at the Basilica Minore del Sto.Niño in Cebu City at dawn Thursday. The Mass kicked off the Sinulog 2010 celebrations. (Photo by CHERYL BALDICANTOS)

The highly-revered image of the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, more popularly known as the Black Nazarene, will be brought to the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park Friday for an overnight vigil in preparation for the grand celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene this Saturday.

Officials of the Light Rail Transit Authority, for its part, announced more LRT train trips on Saturday, adding that the system will accommodate as usual the barefooted devotees of the Black Nazarene who are expected to come in droves for the annual religious procession.

Quiapo Church officials refused to give the exact time of the transfer to the Quirino Grandstand and instead encouraged devotees to just converge at the Rizal Park for a series of activities before Saturday’s traslacion.

The traslacion is the reenactment of the transfer of the Black Nazarene image in 1787 from the Recoletos Church in Intramuros, Manila to the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene (St. John the Baptist Church or Quiapo Church).

This year marks the third time that the Black Nazarene procession will start outside the Quiapo Church. The first was in 2007 during the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the feast.

Activities to be held at the Quirino Grandstand include the “Pahalik sa Poong Nazareno” at 1 p.m. this Friday followed by a band parade at 3:30 p.m. Fr. Benny de Guzman will officiate a Eucharistic celebration and healing service at 5 p.m. The Station of the Cross and the overnight vigil will start at 9 p.m.

The last of the nine-day novena masses in honor of the Black Nazarene that began last December 31 will also be held this Friday. At the Quiapo Church, hourly masses will be celebrated from 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The procession of the replicas of the Black Nazarene was held Thursday, January 7.

Meanwhile, a voter’s education program under the advocacy campaign for good governance called Juana Change will be conducted by Ambassador Henrietta

De Villa at the grandstand at 8 p.m. The program is in line with the theme of this year’s Black Nazarene celebration, “Tunay na Deboto, Matuwid at Masunuring Katiwala ng Poong Hesus Nazareno.”

Msgr. Jose Clemente F. Ignacio, parish priest of Quiapo Church, said: “This is the first time that we will do this because of the theme and the coming elections. We see that it is important for us to be responsible in our decisions.”

Around one million devotees from all over the country are expected to join the grand procession tomorrow when the highly-revered image is brought back to the Quiapo Church after the 6 a.m. Eucharistic celebration.

The LRTA said it will field 24 trains with two spares to service the heavy influx of passengers and devotees.

“Normally we only field 18 trains during Saturdays, but since ridership is normally high during the feast day celebration, we will be deploying more trains. We are also very flexible; we may add more trains if we see that 24 trains would not be enough,” LRTA Administrator Melquiades Robles said.

Security personnel will continue to implement the “no inspection, no entry” policy in all stations, Robles said. Additional security personnel with K-9 dogs will be deployed in all Line 1 (Baclaran to Monumento) and Line 2 (Recto-Santolan) stations, which will be augmented with personnel from the PNP’s Regional Mobile Group.

In addition, LRTA will deploy medical and public assistance personnel plus more tellers at the UN Avenue, Central, Carriedo, D. Jose and Recto stations to accommodate the expected passenger surge.

As with last year’s celebration, the LRTA will allow barefoot passengers to board its trains in deference to the custom of Black Nazarene devotees who join the procession without shoes or slippers.

“We saw that it was very effective in drawing more passengers to use the LRT, that is why will continue to allow them to board the train this year,” Robles added.

Every 9th of January, hundreds of thousands of devotees from all walks of life come to the church of Quiapo to take part in the procession as a way of strengthening their faith or fulfilling their “panata” (vow).

In last year’s celebration, the LRTA — allowing for the first time barefoot devotees on trains — broke its daily ridership record established in December 16, 1996 when it counted an unprecedented 582,989 passengers in the Monumento-Baclaran line. (With reports from JC Bello Ruiz and Emmie V. Abadilla)