
Posada Procession for the Elderly
Started with the night of December 15, there have been sightings of Joseph and Mary’s quest for shelter around the streets of …
Started with the night of December 15, there have been sightings of Joseph and Mary’s quest for shelter around the streets of …
The Feast of Corpus Christi marks the start of the town fairs of the villages in La Antigua Guatemala and surrounding communities. …
Finally, after two years of not having any processions in Antigua Guatemala, the government gave the green light to some processions as …
As I explained earlier, because of the pandemic, processions and all massive events had been canceled. However, some of the activities were …
As I mentioned yesterday, under normal circumstances, we would be experiencing processions as the one shown above. The procession of the «Dolorosas» …
Under normal circumstances, we would be experiencing one of the most photogenic cultural and religious events in the world: The Holy Week …
With each passing year, the processional carpets, or alfombras procesionales as we known them here, get more elaborate and artistically intricate. Some …
We say our goodbyes with this image of the final touches put on one of the most complex and colorful carpets made …
This intimate photograph of a mother and her cucuruchito son was captured as they waited for the La Merced procession on Good …
Processions provide us with lots opportunities to shoot in black and white as well as in color; depending of what you include …
Vista of the consecrated image of “Jesús Nazareno del Perdón” procession from Iglesia San Francisco El Grande on Maundy Thursdays as it …
Here’s a close up vista of the making of a processional carpet minutes before the arrival of the procession. This is truly …
Today is your turn to caption this photograph. The most creative caption posted in the comment area of www.AntiguaDailyPhoto.com will get a …
Normally the weight of a float is divided among all those carrying it. Here I share with you a little boy carrying …
Today I shared with you an image of three little girls, sisters, waiting for their turn to carry the processional float. This …
The fourth Sunday of Lent is the turn for the Santa Ana Procession to serpent through the streets of Antigua Guatemala and …
Cuaresma [Lent] and Semana Santa [Holy Week] are equal-opportunity religious events where everyone gets a chance to participate. Here we caught the …
During one of our special Lenten photo walks we came across this pack of dogs roaming freely in the middle of the …
Can you believe that everyday this week I shared with you images of Semana Santa and except for a section of float …
Before we wave goodbye to the Semana Santa coverage, how about a couple of pictures of details such as this carpets with …
As I have been showing you each day this week, Semana Santa is a family religious event. It is also a time …
We kick start the Semana Santa with the procession of Jesús Nazareno of La Merced around 9am this Palm Sunday morning. Below …
This past Sunday the first Lenten procession hit the streets of Antigua Guatemala. Here’s procession from Santa Catalina Bobadilla as it passes …
The passion and devotion that goes into making the processional carpets is incredible. Often we only mention how long it takes to …
The Processional Marching Bands provide the sonorous aspect of Lent and Holy Week processions with the sorrowful notes. The music touches every …
Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala gives everyone a chance to participate. Even the children get their procession. One for boys and another …
Some of the more intricate and complex designs of alfombras, carpets, can take as long as 12 hours. Such was the case …
The Palm Sunday procession kicks off the Holy Week 2017. The Jesús Nazareno “La Reseña” and Santísima Virgen de Dolores procession leaves …
As I have mention before, do not underestimate the power of catholic imagery. You see, the world-famous Antigua Guatemala processions are about …
Thanks to the Special Lent Photo Walks I am leading on Sundays during Cuaresma and Semana Santa I am able to bring …
Today was a good day, well make it a Good Thursday since we are in the Holy Week. A day full of …
On Good Monday, from the finca “La Chacra” comes out the procession of Jesús Nazareno del Santo Viacrucis. This is a small …
Here’s the exit of La Reseña procession from Iglesia de La Merced in Antigua Guatemala. On Palm Sunday one of the most …
Lent processions are for everyone, men, women, boys and girls. Some processions have floats for everybody, but other times the processional floats …
As I mentioned last weekend, the village of Santa Catalina Bobadilla had an early start with its vigil on Saturday, instead of …
It is such impressive vista these massive floats, andas in Spanish, being carried by 80 to 100 cucuruchos through the different streets …
As I’ve said before, the creation of precessional carpets from sawdust, fruit and vegetables, pine-needles, flowers, etc. is a community-forming tradition. The …
As every Sunday during Lent, Antigua Guatemala gets dress of purple, the color of penitence and the streets become crowded with cucuruchos …
The procession of the fifth Sunday of Lent is quite possibly one of the largest processions in Antigua Guatemala. People just refer …
By the end of the 4th Sunday procession which comes out of the village of Santa Ana, Nelo Mijangos had already walked …
The third of Sunday of Lent is the turn for the church of Jocotenango to put the best procession possible and believe, …
The second Sunday of Lent is the turn for the village of Santa Inés del Monte Pulciano. It is at this processional …
Beginning with the first Sunday after Ash Wednesday, there are processions each Sunday of Lent and the first procession comes out the …
Sometimes it seems that antigüeños only celebrate with parades and processions. I say this because almost every month you encounter a procession …
This markings on the streets and sidewalks signal the beginning or end of the different turns of processional floats (andas) which cucuruchos …
Today’s Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) which means we are at the commencement of the world-famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala. We …
The San Bartolo procession is among the biggest from the Antigua Lent Processions series. In fact, I remember publishing in previous years …
We continue our series Antigua Lent Processions thanks to the wonderful imagery of our friend and collaborator Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos who has …
The village of Santa Inés is located on the edge of La Antigua Guatemala, to the right of the road that takes …
North by Northwest, that’s how you get to Jocotenango from Antigua Guatemala’s Plaza Mayor (main plaza). Jocotenango is not a village of …
First thing first, my dear friend Nelo informs me that on the first Wednesday of the Lent period, also known as Ash …
Transference: the action of transferring something or the process of being transferred. With these processions not only the heavy floats are being …
Sunday was such a great day in La Antigua Guatemala; nice weather conditions and a wonderful atmosphere all around town with people …
This entry should be called “ephemerides updates” because there several events that happened this week. On Tuesday, kids everywhere celebrated carnaval, carnival, …
I don’t know about the rest of Guatemala, but in and around La Antigua Guatemala it seems there is at least one …
It doesn’t matter if the processions in the villages and communities around La Antigua Guatemala are more authentic, more kitsch and with …
Some people have traveled the world over just to be present for the world-famous Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala. Some people …
Processions are majestic, huge and long in La Antigua Guatemala. You can browse the Processions category to get an idea of the size of the processions in La Antigua Guatemala. There are smaller and more humble processions in the villages and small communities surrounding La Antigua Guatemala. This year, I will try to focus more in the Holy Week celebrations and processions in the villages where you can still observe the fervor, regardless of the size, for all these Catholic rituals. The photo above was taken in the village of San Pedro Las Huertas, while the procession made a pit stop or parada as they are known in Spanish. Well, I think that is the name, maybe somebody more knowledgeable in Catholic rituals can provide the actual name for the stops the processions make every so often at specific spots.
The making of these processional carpets is such a community-forming and bonding activity since in the process participate many, if not all, of the neighbors and family members. These traditions, festive calendar dates and special celebrations mark very strongly what makes a normal human being into a hard-core Guatemalan. You break the link or access to these experiences and you only have a person that was born in Guatemala; a fact as worthless as the fact of having had a pair of boots once.
The People of La Antigua Guatemala and surrounding villages simply love to make processional carpets and the town fair provides the perfect excuse to make sawdust and flower carpets throughout the year; really why wait for Semana Santa (Holy Week).
Yesterday I told you I was going to have a sample of the sorrowful tunes play by the processional musicians that are …
One characteristic which I enjoy about processions is the sorrowful tunes that are played by the mournful marching bands that follow the …
Back on Ash Wednesday, February 21st, 2007, I said that in the Catholic Realm the Holy Week celebration had begun with Ash …
In Antigua Guatemala, the official Christmas season begins with the celebrations and activities organized in honor of the Virgin of Immaculate Conception …
As I mentioned earlier, as part of the Feast of Corpus Christi in the town fairs of Antigua Guatemala all kinds of …
Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: Alfombras procesionales for processional carpets. Once again I’ll be offering group and private …
Now that the Holy Week is over, we found the purple banners and bags of colored sawdust used in the processional carpets …
Since no processions were allowed on the streets due to the pandemic, churches and temples opted to have altars and shrines inside …
As I mentioned yesterday, the pandemic has changed how the Semana Santa and other festivities are observed in Guatemala. One of those …
The pandemic has disrupted life in Guatemala in so many ways. The religious and cultural manifestations that brought together huge crowds are …
Just because we are not having processions during Cuaresma [Lent] or during the Semana Santa [Holy Week] it doesn’t mean we are …
Let the nine days of posadas navideñas begin. Since this morning, December 15th, there have been sightings of Joseph and Mary’s quest …
July 25th is the Day of Saint James, Día de Santiago, the patron saint of Antigua Guatemala, formerly known as Santiago de …
Even though Antigua Guatemala is the top destination in the world for the Holy Week celebrations, many destination through out Guatemala also …
With all the borders closed, including the airport; all non-essential activities forbidden, including religious services, processions and vigils; plus all gatherings prohibited, …
2020 will be remembered as the quiet year; a year without processions; a year without massive events; a year without crowds. Yet …
I could have never imagined desolate streets during the most important week of the year: the Holy Week of Antigua Guatemala, how …
Any other year, this week the streets of Antigua Guatemala would be packed with people, processions and beautiful Semana Santa carpets. Now, …
Get your camera ready to capture the color and devotion of Cuaresma and Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala! Book one of my …
Lent and Easter are coming, get your camera ready! Book one of my Lenten photo walks to have unprecedented access to the …
Here’s another intimate portrait of a cucurucho father and his son on their way to find their spot for their turn to …
We continue with the more intimate photographs of the Holy Week with this framed portrait of a cucurucho at a shrine set …
Once again I feel fortunate that so many photographers from all over the world put their trust in me to help them …
Most photographers point their cameras towards the “anda” of Jesús Nazareno during the processions. I believe the float of Virgin Mary can …
Here’s a vista of the Jesús Nazareno float from Iglesia de La Merced on Palm Sunday as it made its way through …
Today’s photographs were made while I was teaching a street photography workshop during Easter & Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala. Take home …
Today I share a photo of a little boy picking up pine needle and corozo palms from processional carpet; these two plants …
Take home extraordinary images of the once-a-year traditional and colorful processions from the intricacies of carpet building, to the coordination required to …
Don’t miss this once-a-year chance to capture stunning aspects of the traditional processions from the intricacies of carpet building, to the coordination …
Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish phrase of the day: Miércoles de ceniza for Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent …
For Día de Reyes or Epiphany we break a piece of bread known as Rosca de Día de los Reyes. Whoever gets the plastic baby placed inside has to pay for the tamales and ponche on Día de la Candelaria, February 2nd, or Groundhog Day. Click through the link to see Rosca de Día de los Reyes…
Posadas navideñas are small processions enacting the search for shelter of Joseph and Mary right before the birth of baby Jesus. Here …
As I mentioned in another post, as part of the Day of the Dead photography workshop on November 1st, we shot two …
As part of the Day of the Dead photography workshop on November 1st, we shot two Mayan graveyards one Spanish cemetery; giant …
I can’t believe it was last Sunday, Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday when we had the last procession of Cuaresma and Semana …
Those who missed the incredible Semana Santa, Easter week, in Antigua Guatemala still got a chance to capture some of the remains, …
Cucuruchos learn the process from very early age, many of them as babies dress up and are carried by fathers and mothers …
As I have been saying the last few days, Semana Santa is a week of family time. Every member of the family …
Entire families enjoy the processions of Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala. Often the entire family participate in different activities from making carpets, …