At 6:00 pm today, I happened to be at the grocery buying some stuff for my trip next week. The public address told us that transactions will be momentarily halted for the angelus. When the prayers began, I stopped and looked around. Some of the other customers also stayed where they were. Some kept moving but a few slowed down to keep their cart from making too much noise.
This reminded me of my parents' hometown during the summer. My mom and dad hied us off to Manaoag for about a month during summer. That was how we became chummy with our cousins. Sometimes we would go on out of town trips to the beach or Baguio.
There were times when we would get back at dusk. If we happened to pass the poblaccion at 6 pm, we would hear the church bells tolling. Traffic would stop at that moment while the ringing continued. That meant angelus was being prayed inside the church and you were supposed to join in. Traffic would restart as soon as the bells stopped.
Nowadays, it doesn't happen that way. It isn't only that you hardly hear the bells because they still sound off at 6pm. It's just that people don't seem to remember why the bells go off at that time. Few of them stop. Horns are even honking as the town is supposed to be quietly in prayer.
What happened to solemnity?
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