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In many places of Guatemala on Holy Saturday an effigy of Judas Iscariote is burned. For those who don’t know who Juda Escariot was, according to the New Testament, he was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. He is infamously known for his kiss and betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief Sanhedrin priests in exchange for a payment of thirty silver coins.

In Guatemala where just about everyone is a pyromaniac, Holy Saturday provides yet another opportunity to burn something, in this case the image of Judas Iscariot, but not before reading aloud his will where he tells on many of the neighbours. The figure is placed on a public place many members of the community get together for the reading of his testament and burning, which in this case was the village of San Gaspar Vivar at 6pm.

Aside: I was asked by the organizer, a humble old man, if I could fix the tie as it seemed no one knew how to tie a necktie in this neighbourhood. Of course, neither did I.

With this gallery of Semana Santa photos from Antigua Guatemala, Nelo Mijangos shares with us an overview of the many vistas one can expect while following a procession in Antigua Guatemala. For instance, the picture above gives us an idea of the length of the float and how many cucuruchos carry it. Below, we can see that cucuruchos come together in all ages to express their devotion; we get to look at the different figures on top of the floats inside the churches as well as outside; further, we see the different costumes wore during the enactment of the crucifixion, including the Romans with their torches; we get to see the huge crowds as well as the all the people working together to create the world-famous Holy Week alfombras (carpets) from Antigua Guatemala.

In my opinion, Nelo has done an outstanding job bringing to us all the haunting and awe-inspiring imagery of the world-famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala, don’t you agree?

photos by Nelo Mijangos

Last night was the presentation of Vocal People at Ermita de la Santa Cruz ruins, Antigua Guatemala’s concert venue, as part of the XII Festival Internacional de Cultura Paiz. Voca People brought a musical show featuring popular songs by the only means of a cappella and beatbox, sans any other musical instrument. The Saturday night presentation was the first of two performances, being the second show tonight at 7 p.m. at Ermita de la Santa Cruz. This is the first time Voca People visit Guatemala with their unique and engaging show. Once again, Fundación Paiz has brought a first-class show as part of the XII Festival Internacional de Cultura Paiz.

Below you can look at a slide show and video clip showing the Voca People performance.

The night of February 1 was chosen as the inauguration of XII Festival Internacional de Cultura Paiz to be held for ten days in Antigua Guatemala. The night was filled with the sounds of the big band music of the Bob Porter’s Orchestra and happy rhythms of pop, rock, latino and ska by the Guatemalan band Malacates Trébol Shop. There will be many more cultural events for the next ten days, some of them paid and the rest for free.

We have to be grateful because the Fundación Paiz has chosen La Antigua Guatemala is the default venue for their international cultural festival as we get to experience many high quality cultural events for free.

This is what a typical laundry day looks like at any of the public washbasins and water tanks in and around Antigua Guatemala. What’s not so typical is to see a man doing laundry in one of the lavaderos (washbasins).

Este es un típico día en los lavaderos públicos en las aldeas de Antigua Guatemala. Lo extraño en este caso es ver a un hombre lavando en un lavadero público. Estoy seguro de que esto sucede, pero es la primera vez que lo veo.

I came across a group of catholic women who were raising funds for their church. One of the women carry an image and a small basket to collect the donations. In exchange for your donation you could kiss the image and the women would pray for you for a few seconds. If you didn’t put anything in the basket, you could still get the prayer and kiss the figure. A few blocks ahead I came across other groups of women doing exactly the something. The whole thing was interesting and enchanting to me.

Me encontré con un grupo de mujeres católicas que caminaban por las calles recolectando fondos para su iglesia. Una mujer cargaba una figura y canasto para recibir las donaciones. Como intercambio de la donación uno podía besar la figura y la mujeres rezaban por uno unos cuantos segundos todas a una sola voz. Si uno no tenía dinero, las mujeres aún rezaban y le permitían besar a la imagen. Una cuantas cuadras más tarde me encontré con otros grupos de mujeres haciendo exactamente lo mismo. Todo el procedimiento me pareció interesante y encantador.

We’re at the end of the December, so we’ll be saying our goodbyes to 2012. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people who have left comments or sent feedback. I want to send a big THANK YOU to all of you who supported my efforts. A very special THANK YOU to all the guest contributors who made AntiguaDailyPhoto a richer, polyphonic resource for all things Guatemala.

We close the year 2012 with 2466 pages, 12,092 comments and 3,508,259 visits (at the time of writing). That’s over 3 and a half million visits thus far!

Please, let us know what were your favorite entries, your favorite series, or your favorite photos of the year. THANKS!

New Year’s Eve Celebrations in Antigua Guatemala:
There are several things that make New Year’s Eve similar yet different than Christmas Eve or Noche Buena, as we call it here. Christmas Eve is celebrated with the family at home or at your parents’ home; New Year’s Eve can be celebrated anywhere: a discotheque, a park, the beach or La Calle del Arco and Parque Central will be the popular venues in Antigua Guatemala tonight. New Year’s Eve is less religious than Christmas’ Eve and there are many more parties to go to.

There is a particular song which is played at every single party and danced to… El Año Viejo. There’s a fragment of the song below to get you started singing. Further down, I leave you the most famous version of El Año Viejo by Tony Camargo. This song is quite possibly the most-often-played track throughout Latin America on New Year’s Eve.

My best wishes to everyone and please have the happiest New Year Celebration Ever!

Yo no olvido al año viejo (I don’t forget the old year)
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas: (Because it left behind good things for me:)
Me dejó una chiva, (It left me a goat,)
Una burra negra, (a black donkey)
Una yegua blanca (a white female horse)
Y una buena suegra… (And a good mother-in-law…)