Portrait of Father and Son Cucuruchos
The tradition of carrying the processional floats starts at a very early age as you can see here with portrait of a …
Lent Vistas — Street Portraits of Cucuruchos made during Lent Photo Walks
The special Lent and Holy Week photo walks are a fun way to make great up-close photographs of people, all kinds of …
Lent Vistas — Cucuruchos having granizadas
After hours of walking and carrying the heavy processional floats, cucuruchos need to hidrate themselves and what better way than with cold …
Young Cucuruchos in Antigua Guatemala
Lent and Holy Week are traditions for everyone, including children, where boys and girls have processional floats that they can carry. I …
The Cucuruchos and The Drones in Antigua Guatemala
Here’s your illustrated Spanish word of the day: Cucurucho or cone-head. Cucuruchos are the men who carry the heavy processional floats. What …
Holy Week Elements: Cucuruchos
Purple or violet is the color of Lent and the Holy Week. Cucuruchos, bearers, wear their cone-head purple robes as a sign …
Cucuruchos and Photographers
As shown the other day, many cucuruchos are also photographers, a trend which seems to increase as more people use mobile phone …
Antigua Holy Week Cucuruchos
Cucuruchos with their purple or violet cone-head rebes are another prominent element of Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala. Purple is worn as …
Holy Week Elements: Cucuruchos
Cucuruchos with their purple or violet cone-head dress are another prominent element of Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala. Last week, Santiago Durham asked what its the significance of the color purple or violet in the dress and banners during Semana Santa, well it took a lot of digging to find out (I turned around and asked my office coworker), but I can now tell you the purple is worn as a sign of penitence. As a matter of fact, processions are a sign of penitence as well, heck the whole Semana Santa is a penitent act.
Purple Cone-Head Cucuruchos Are a Big Attraction
Purple cone-head “Cucuruchos” are a big attraction around Antigua Guatemala in the Lent Season. Although Cucurucho’ dresses come in many colors, bright …
Holy Week Details: Cucurucho Candles Vendor
Purple or violet and black are the colors of Lent and the Holy Week. Cucuruchos, float bearers, wear their cone-head purple robes …
Semana Santa Vistas: Cucurucho Father and Son Embracing
Cucuruchos learn the process from very early age, many of them as babies dress up and are carried by fathers and mothers …
Lenten Vistas — Photographers
Nowadays I believe there are as many photographers as cucuruchos, well maybe half or so as many cucuruchos. Of course, many cucuruchos …
Holy Week Vistas — Children’s Procession
Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala gives everyone a chance to participate. Even the children get their procession. One for boys and another …
Holy Week Vistas — Cucurucho kids having an ice cream break
One of the most important lessons we can take from experiencing the Holy Week in Guatemala is the many different ways of …
Holy Week Vistas — Photobombing a Grandmother during the Holy Week
Here’s the short story, this grandmother poses on the other side of a procesional carpet, or alfombra in Spanish. A relative is …
Lent Vistas — The Cucurucho and The Photographer
Cucuruchos and Photographers need to take a few breaks through out the processional route at the tienditas. This is one of the …
Lent Vistas — Street Portrait of Cucurucho
Violet or purple and black are the colours of Lent and the Holy Week. Cucuruchos, bearers, wear their cone-head purple robes as …
Lent Vistas — Dolorosas
Lent and Holy Week are an equal opportunity events where everyone gets a chance to participate and carry the floats. Hermanas cargadoras, …
Lent Photo Walks in Antigua Guatemala
Every Sunday of Lent I am leading some very special photo walks, from 2pm to 5pm, and during the Holy Week, from …
Selfie Generation During The Holy Week
We wave good-bye to Semana Santa 2016 with the most emblematic image found during the Holy Week: The Selfie. As every year, …
The Holy Week Roman Soldier Refueling Station
I always wondered where do Roman soldiers and cucuruchos [coneheads] refuel for the tremendous amount of energy required to do a full …
Saving Guatemalan Souls
If you pay attention to the number of missionaries in Guatemala you can only conclude that Guatemalan souls are in danger. Guatemalans …
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala
The Holy Week Is Officially Over! Yes, it’s official, the Semana Santa is over. Now, it is time to ponder over the …
Holy Week Vistas: Cucurucho Photographers
I don’t know how it happened, but nowadays many cucuruchos, the cone head float carriers, are also carrying cameras to photograph the …
Holy Week Vistas: Cucurucho Refuelling Station
Here’s your Spanish word of the day: Cucurucho or cone head. Every so often cucuruchos need to refuel so they continue to …
Holy Week Vistas: Processions
It is such impressive vista these massive floats, andas in Spanish, being carried by 80 to 100 cucuruchos through the different streets …
Holy Week Vistas: Children’s Precessions
As I have said before, the Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala is an equal opportunity celebration. Sure, cucuruchos take the majority of …
Lent Processional Figures Undergoing Repairs
As every Sunday during Lent, Antigua Guatemala gets dress of purple, the color of penitence and the streets become crowded with cucuruchos …
Holy Week Elements: Timonel
Here’s your Holy Week Spanish word for the day: Timonel The timonel is the person at the front of the processional float …
Antigua Guatemala Semana Santa Photos
With this gallery of Semana Santa photos from Antigua Guatemala, Nelo Mijangos shares with us an overview of the many vistas one …
Perpetuating The Holy Week Traditions in Antigua Guatemala No. 3
As I have mentioned before, Lent and Semana Santa is an equal-opportunity tradition. As you can see here, even little girls get …
Perpetuating The Holy Week Traditions in Antigua Guatemala No. 2
As I mentioned yesterday, there will be Lent and Holy Week celebrations in Antigua Guatemala for a long while. These religious traditions …
Lent Sunday Processions: 2nd Santa Inés
The second Sunday of Lent is the turn for the village of Santa Inés del Monte Pulciano. It is at this processional …
Let The Photographers In for Lent and Holy Week
Just as cucuruchos and processions are the staple imagery of Lent and Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala, so are the photographers …
Processional Float Turn Markings
This markings on the streets and sidewalks signal the beginning or end of the different turns of processional floats (andas) which cucuruchos …
Students Paying a Visit to a Church
Just like the separation of State and Church is not an issue in Antigua Guatemala, taking students from a public school to …
Cucurucho Candles
You’d be amazed on everything that might be for sale on the streets of La Antigua Guatemala during Lent. This time while …
Antigua Holy Week Floats
There’s nothing more impressive during the Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala than seen these massive floats, andas in Spanish, being carried by …
The Holy Week Photographers
Okay, the 365-day wait is over. The world-famous Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala is here. Get your cameras ready and join …
Cucurucho Tsunami
I confess that you have to click on the image above to understand the title. I confess I have never in my …
My Turn is No. 11
The Cuaresma and Semana Santa season comes with its own set of garments; from the Romans to the Cucuruchos to the Dolorosas …
Lent’s First Sunday Procession
Sunday was such a great day in La Antigua Guatemala; nice weather conditions and a wonderful atmosphere all around town with people …
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 …
Jacarandas Trees Wear Violet for Lent
It seems like even Jacaranda trees want to be seen wearing the ever-present violet and purple color found over doorways, windows and …
Guatemalan Green Mangoes For Sale
Although I think green mangoes can be found in Guatemala all year round, I believe they are better when in the mangoes …
Holy Week: An Equal Opportunity Celebration
That is right, Semana Santa in Guatemala is an equal opportunity celebration. Sure, cucuruchos take the majority of the clicks of cameras and most of the video recorded, but children, women and dogs have a place in the Holy Week celebrations. Women’s float or andas are a bit smaller and carry virgins or angels most of the time.
Underneath a Holy Week Float in La Antigua Guatemala
So much mumble jumble to present the underneath view of a Holy Week float in one of the villages of La Antigua Guatemala. Andas (floats) are not only the affair of cucuruchos, women also participate; and sometimes even chuchos (street dogs) get involved in the penitent act of carrying the heavy float! 😉
Cucurucho Paying for His Turns at the Float
Each turn of the Holy Week Float costs around Q60 (around US$8), there are around 60 turns and each float has somewhere between 80 and 100 spaces for the Cucuruchos. That’s close to Q290,000 (US$38,000) per procession.
Holy Week Elements: The Churches
Churches serve as terminals from which processions depart or arrive. Churches also serve as home-base for all the brotherhoods of cucuruchos and sisterhoods. Churches also put their best face for the Holy Week and many get a paint job and/or restoration works in the weeks prior to Semana Santa.
With this photo we wave goodbye to Semana Santa and to Holy Week’s processions. I was told the last procession, the Resurrection (Resurección) procession comes out on Easter Sunday (today) a 6 a.m. and its back in the church by 10 in the morning.
Holy Week Elements: The Crowds
Thanks to Byron Ortiz for lending his photos of Semana Santa (Holy Week), so we can get a better picture of the …
Children’s Procession in La Antigua Guatemala
Back on Ash Wednesday, February 21st, 2007, I said that in the Catholic Realm the Holy Week celebration had begun with Ash …
The Colegio Mayor de Santo Tomás Sign
The sign above is at entrance doorway of the Colegio Mayor de Santo Tomás de Aquino, School of Saint Thomas, and you …
Malo Mori Quam Foedari
No, they are not Ku Klux Klan as you might be inclined to believe at first glance. They are cucuruchos which is …