The Black Nazarene derives its name from Jesus' hailing from Nazareth in Galilee, and the image's very dark complexion unusual among most Philippine religious images. Adorning the statue's head are the traditional "Tres Potencias" ("three powers") halo, symbolizing the three powers of the Holy Trinity. The three rayos ("rays") are used to exclusively identify Christ in traditionalHispanic iconography, and are an angular evolution of the common cruciform halo.
The importance of the holy relic lead to a procession through the streets of Manila. The event is taken from the Spanish term translation (Spanish: Traslación) referring to "Passage" or "Movement." The term was later modernized or adapted from English in the Latin root form "Trans" or "Port" (Transport/to move or carry) in addition to the prefix of the word "Translacion" to move the image from one place to another parading around the city in a certain specific sequence. The word "Translacion" is often mistaken as the Spanish or Tagalog word for "translation," however both "Traslacion" and "Translacion" are applicable accordingly for the holy event.
Ándas
The image's wooden base is referred to as the peana, while its carriage or carroza used in processions is called the Ándas (from the Spanish andar, "to move forward"). Until the latter part of the 20th century, the Ándas, as the name implies, was a silver-plated platform borne on two poles called pinga. Today it is pulled by devotees using a pair of 50-metre long ropes, which had evolved from the pinga.
History
The image enshrined in the high altar of the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, Manila.
The statue was made by an anonymous Mexican sculptor, and the image arrived in Manila via galleon fromAcapulco, Mexico, sometime in the first decade of the 1600s. Folk tradition attributes the dark colour of the statue to a fire on the ship that charred the originally white skin.
The surviving image has been enshrined in the Minor Basilica