Semana Santa

Antigua is the hot spot for Semana Santa and we were right in the midst of it.

It appears that the preferred mode of celebration is processions- lots and lots of processions. Each church does their own set of them and there's probably 10 Catholic churches in Antigua. Some churches started as much as two months ago with an occasional Sunday afternoon procession and this weekend was chalk full of them. They all pretty much look the same-- shepherd looking guys in purple and white carrying huge floats on their shoulders and Roman soldiers with spears and shields.




The carpets ("alfombras"), such as these, are made all over the city on procession routes. They take several hours to make, putting layers of colored sawdust-like stuff into a variety of stencil patterns. Some also make much more simple carpets by putting down a layer of pine needles and then decoration them with flowers, fruit, nuts, and pretty much anything else they can come up with. The creation process is much more highly regarded than the alfombra itself which only remains completed for probably less than an hour on average before the procession comes through and destroys it.















The festivities are pretty much wrapped up now. They went through the night on Thursday (with the reading of Jesus' charges by a Roman soldier on horseback at 3 am Friday morning) and continued through Friday night. Christ's crucifixion is much more highly celebrated in the Catholic tradition than is his resurrection and so Easter apparently passes by without much notice. Walking through the streets of Antigua, I wouldn't have guessed there was anything special about today had I not known.