Holy Week in the Philippines held in towns throughout the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and in the Ilocandia, as well as in Makati in Metro Manila. Except in the Bulakenyo towns of Baliuag and Pulilan, the Passion tableaux are excluded from the Good Friday afternoon procession. Maundy Thursday (Huwebes Santo) is the first statutory public holiday of the week, and marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Procession of the Passion of Christ was held on Maundy Thursday. This was later transferred to Holy Wednesday for Latin Rite Catholics, with the Philippine Independent Church (which separated
Royal Maundy Allison and Sarah Riddell in their "Royal Encyclopedia", the service "has become the occasion of a royal pilgrimage to different parts of the country". The Queen has directed that the service not be held in London more often than once in ten years. Westminster Abbey was the site of the 2001 Royal Maundy, and again in 2011, the first ever televised. On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Maundy service held outside England and Wales. Today the recipients are pensioners, chosen on an interdenominational basis from various Christian churches