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Updated: 26/06/2025 - 13:46 GMT+2
In northern Luzon, Philippines, over 2,000 devotees dressed in mud and banana leaves walked to a church praying for world peace, honoring a WWII miracle.
In northern Luzon, Philippines, more than 2,000 devotees gathered at dawn for a deeply symbolic ritual rooted in faith and history. Participants covered themselves in mud and dressed in dried banana leaves before walking through rice fields to a Catholic church to offer prayers for world peace.
The tradition commemorates a 1944 event during World War II, when Japanese troops were about to execute villagers, but a sudden rainstorm, seen as divine intervention by Saint John the Baptist, saved them.
Today, the ritual honors that legacy while echoing prayers for peace in war-torn regions like Ukraine and the Middle East.
