Visiting Manaoag Church, Pangasinan

I'm pretty sure you've heard of The Our Lady of Manaoag Shrine? It's been known for years now, and there are even people who devote to visiting the Shrine monthly or yearly. The heat was extremely scorching when we visited, probably because it was around noon; but it was still worth it because visiting gave me this sort of good feeling. Plus, it's been years since I've last went there, and this trip was only my second time. :)


Before I head on, let me share a little bit of our trip on the way to Manaoag. We left our house at around 6:30AM, assuming we'll arrive in Manaoag around 8:00-9:00AM.



Unfortunately, even though we traveled via expressway, there was still traffic! but the traffics were only on the toll gates, which I find really senseless because I think just last month, they've announced that toll gates are only supposed to accept exact pay; but if only you saw how traffic it was. I think we spent around 15-20 minutes in line for a toll gate.


We even used Google Maps, because we weren't sure of the directions. We thought it was funny how google maps calculated for example: 20 minutes until we reach a certain road, but due to traffic, we took 40-50 minutes.



We arrived in Manaoag at around 10:45AM, so it took us almost 4 hours to get there.


I believe the shrine is best under daylight. Though, I can't remember if this was the way it looked before, but I don't remember the front being as spacious as it was when we went years ago.



The Church holds masses every hour. I'm not sure if it's everyday, but when we came, masses were held every hour until 1PM, and then the next was at 4PM. The Church was packed with people every mass hour.




We bought this part of the Church that sells all sorts of candles and lets you place them in a specific area for praying. I forgot what it was called, but the area was huge and on the center of it was the Statue of Mama Mary.





There are various types of candles that you can buy. You can buy like the one we did, the long, brown one. You can also buy the waterlily type (the image above this paragraph). There are also packed candles that are labeled such as "Hope", "Health", etc.



Aaand that's the statue I'm talking about! :) That's one of the reasons why a lot of people love the place.


Also, there's this place on the second floor where you can touch the head of the huge statue of mama mary outside. I think that's what people are most interested in Manaoag. I wasn't able to take pictures of the second floor because we didn't go there anymore. The line was so long, and the closing time was coming up soon, and I think it would only resume at 4PM too. #sad huhu I wanted to try touching the statue, because I remember how I couldn't reach the statue back when I went for the first time. I just wanted to feel... all grown up (by that, I mean tall).



Our Manaoag trip was fun! Aside from being able to visit a known Church, I was able to bond with my parents over food, traffic, and the long drive.

ONE THING TO CONSIDER when going to Manaoag is being able to pass by fruit and veggie vendors!! (just a quick share). We were able to buy three of those onions (pack) for only 100! How cheap is that, right? When you go to supermarkets, they sell half of those for P30.00 - P40.00.
You should definitely take advantage of buying from these when going on a trip to Manaoag!


So how about you? How about planning a trip to Manaoag with your loved ones? :)