Semana Santa

Semana Santa ("Holy Week") is the week leading up to Easter Sunday. Here in Guatemala, it is a big deal, and celebrated in style. In our village of Pampojilá, festivities began on Jueves Santo ("Holy Thursday"), with a procession of the cross. According to the Bible, Thursday was the night of the last supper, and Friday was the day Jesus carried his cross up to Golgotha to be crucified. Traditionally, processions of Jesus carrying his cross are reenacted on Holy Friday for this reason. Pampojilá (our village) is a special case, however. Since it is a small village, the community here has changed the tradition by a day - they have their own village procession on Thursday, so that everyone can go into town to San Lucas on Friday to see the bigger procession and receive mass. So on Holy Thursday, two weeks ago, the community procession left the village church at 4:00p.m. (see the photo above), coiled up the side of the highway to a neighboring finca (plantation), came back down to the village, circled throughout every neighborhood, and finally arrived back at the church at midnight. The procession included Jesus carrying his cross (with men clad in purple Jerusalem-esqe robes carrying him), followed by Mary (carried by the village girls, who wear virgin-mother-inspired veils for the occasion). Even the little kids get dressed up! Their job is to carry incense burners to swing back and forth in front of the procession.

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Our host-brother, Rosbin (far right), posing for a photo with his friends.

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Mary and her girls.

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Jesus on the highway, around 7 p.m.

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...followed by Mary, a heavenly sight under the full moon.

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By the time the procession reached our house, it was 10:30pm! But that didn't stop our host-sisters from making an alfombra ("carpet"). Families here take pride in creating colorful carpets along the street in front of their houses for the procession to walk upon. Some carpets, like the one in the photo below, are made on a bed of pine-needles, and fashioned out of fresh flowers and/or colored saw-dust.

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Lesvia (left) and Greysi (right) using a stencil to create designs on their alfombra.

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The finished product - gorgeous!

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On Viernes Santo ("Holy Friday"), Shom and I went into town to San Lucas to see the same sort of festivities (alfombras and a procession), except that it turned out to be an incredibly magnified version of what we had experienced the night before in Pampojilá. In San Lucas, the carpets were wider, longer, and much more lavish. Families such as our friends the Julajuj's (Dr. Kate's host family) spent days in preparation, dying sawdust and collecting flowers in order to create a block-long alfombra (below) that was unbelieveable. Since it was such a big production, we got to help a little, which was lots of fun! Another difference, besides the sheer size and magnificence of the alfombras and the staggering number of people, is a tradition they have in San Lucas of hanging Maximón (a local Mayan demigod) from the church bell tower to symbolize Judas, the apostle who hung himself just after he betrayed Jesus by handing him over to the authorities to be crucified.

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The Julajuj's alfombra.

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Me (top left), helping with a stencil.

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Maximón as Judas, hanging from the bell tower.

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The parish's alfombra, a clever recreation of the traditional red-and-white-striped San Lucas Tolimán weave worn by the Mayan women here.

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The procession, leaving the church.

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Minutes after completing this intricate alfombra, townspeople stand back as the procession passes by...