Holy Week Precessional Music
The Holy Week in Guatemala is a full five senses overwhelming experience. As you follow the processions all five senses are bombarded with maximum stimuli and you are carried into a mystical experience.
It is so difficult to convey these feelings when I am only presenting you with static photographs. But you are going to have to imagine the loud beating of the drums, the funerary processional music; the scents of corozo palms, flowers, and Pom incense and a million other aromas; obviously you eye sight gets a full exposure to all the bright colors in the spectrum as well as images from Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala, like carpets, floats, purple, red, black and white robes from cucuruchos, musical bands, people, incense smoke and the such; so far that’s only three of the senses, but how can you forget the tastes of traditional foods like chupetes, the helados (ice cream), the freshly cut fruits in bags, the brightly-colored algodones (translation please), candied fruits, semillas de marañón (cashew nuts) and manias (peanuts), beets salad, bacalou a la viscaina (dried fish in Viscaina tomato sauce), boy oh boy, there are so many delicious treats to be tasted; finally, we come to touch which is underrated, nevertheless is quite possibly of the most important sense because all personal and private spaces get blurred as you carry the heavy anda, you touch and get touched by people as you walk from side to the other of procession, don’t forget the hand shakes and hugs as you come across friends and family, the touching makes the whole thing “Real”.
Each special touch, each sensuous sight, sound, smell, taste, form unforgettable memories of the season, of Semana Santa in Guatemala, declares Ken Veronda in his wonderful article, Sensuous Guatemala: Semana Santa.
If you have the time, go read the article Sensuous Guatemala: Semana Santa by Ken Veronda in the Revue Magazine web site. He does a wonderful job explaining how during “Semana Santa, Holy Week, all five senses are overwhelmed in every Guatemalan city and village, but nowhere more than in La Antigua Guatemala with its colonial traditions and frequent processions.”
If for any reason, you can not experience the Semana Santa in La Antigua Guatemala with your five senses, I share with you a consolable 5-minute video of the following of a procession in a colonia (neighborhood) in San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala. Enjoy and please, leave your comments and feedback!
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