Framed Volcanoes: Fuego and Acatenango
The cold winds blowing all the way from the true north, otherwise known as Canada, give us the best days of the …
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 …
Holy Week Elements: Copal Incense
As I explained with the corozo palm aroma, I can bring to you the colors, the imagery, the sounds and even video …
Real Guatemala: Los Policías
Alright, we will finish the first part of the Real Guatemala series with portrait of two police officers who were deployed during …
The last days of the dry season
We’re living the last days of the dry season and judging by the amount of clouds around the volcanoes and some of …
Flowers, Sunshine and 15°C Weather Now Available in Guatemala
The title says it all. So what are you waiting for to book your flight and come to land of the eternal …
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 …
Catholic Decorations: San Miguel
La Antigua Guatemala has to be most catholic town in Guatemala, heck make that Central America. Nowhere is Catholicism more solidly embedded …
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 …
Repairing The Spanish-tile Roofs
People repairing streets, façades and roofs are also very common during Cuaresma [Lent]. Everyone wants La Antigua Guatemala to look its best …
Street Repairs Before Lent
Another typical vista from February are the streets repairs done before or during Cuaresma, Lent, to have all the streets in their …
Holy Week Generations
Slowly, but surely the love, devotion and passion for the world famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala are being passed on to …
Theme Day: Red
The making of sawdust carpets, alfombras de aserrín, with its vivid colors and eye-catching patterns are among the most prominent elements of …
The Economics of the Holy Week
As Semana Santa, the Holy Week before Easter, approaches, the historic colonial town of Antigua sees almost daily processions. These processions include …
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 …
The Broom-head Romans Are Back
I have honestly tried not put as many Cuaresma/Lent and Semana Santa/Holy Week photos here. I could, in theory, have a Lent/Holy …
Sponsoring The Holy Week
I don’t know if sponsoring the processions for Cuaresma and Semana Santa (Lent and Holy Week respectively) was already common practice in …
Lent Season Decorations Over City Hall
As in previous years, La Antigua Guatemala begins wearing violet or purple decorations over doors, windows and balconies. Heck, even the jacaranda …
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: The Crowds
Oh yes, I had also forgotten to mention the superabundant crowds that you will find in La Antigua Guatemala during the Holy …
Holy Week: Processions
It doesn’t matter if the processions in the villages and communities around La Antigua Guatemala are more authentic, more kitsch and with …
Holy Week: The Float’s Pilot
Interestingly enough, Erick was commenting yesterday how impressive was to see the massive float make a U-turn as he was watching the …
Holy Week: Women’s Float
You normally see men carrying the big heavy processional floats or andas as they are known in Guatemalan Spanish. You can browse …
Follow Up to Façade Facelift
Since I showed you, just the other day, how the façade of house from La Antigua Guatemala was being repaired and painted …
New Paint Job for Episcopal Palace
The adjacent building to the right of Cathedral of La Antigua Guatemala goes by the name of Palacio Episcopal (Episcopal Palace). This …
Dr. Cascarón or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Eggshell
These colorful Guatemalan eggshells filled with confetti are known as cascarones and are the sure sign that marks the arrival of carvinal …
The Remains of Lent
Many purple and violet banners are still hanging from doorways and windows around town. It feels like many don’t want to let …
The Old Man and the Band
This old man and the band are the tail of the procession. There goes Semana Santa 2008… we are at end of the Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala. Just one more day!
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.
Gringos Making a Holy Week Carpet
Gringos are now an integral part of La Antigua Guatemala and therefore many of them participate of the preparations of the world …
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.
Making Palm Sunday Arrangements
Today’s Palm Sunday or Domingo de Ramos as today’s known in the Catholic Realm. Last year, Domingo de Ramos fell on April …
Guatemalan Fair: The Sawdust Processional Carpets
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).
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.
Weekend Procession in the Lent Season
Yesterday I told you I was going to have a sample of the sorrowful tunes play by the processional musicians that are …