I can’t believe it was last Sunday, Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday when we had the last procession of Cuaresma and Semana Santa, Lent and Easter week. Yet, as I pointed out earlier this week, some of the decoration are still hanging. Here you can see the decoration that adorned the inside of the parish … Read more
Can you believe that everyday this week I shared with you images of Semana Santa and except for a section of float in the portrait a cucurucho carrying his daughter, I actually never showed you a procession. Well, Domingo de Resurección, Easter Sunday, is the last day of the Semana Santa, so might as well … Read more
Cucuruchos learn the process from very early age, many of them as babies dress up and are carried by fathers and mothers who instill in them the devotion and importance of participating in the religious traditions of Antigua Guatemala, processions being the most visual and public of all. Back on February I had already shared … Read more
As I have been saying the last few days, Semana Santa is a week of family time. Every member of the family involved somehow in the religious traditions of Antigua Guatemala. Such is the case here where a mother embraces her Dolorosa daughter who was ready to carry the processional float of the Virgen de … Read more
click, click, click, click click click, clicks, click. See, if it does NOT matter how much effort I put into documenting the Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala for you, I always miss something important. Can you believe this the third year I am covering the Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala and I have not … Read more
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!
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 are now an integral part of La Antigua Guatemala and therefore many of them participate of the preparations of the world famous alfombras de Semana Santa (Holy Week carpets) made from colorful sawdust, flowers, fruits, and anything the imagination allows. From this shot, I particularly like the framing of the tourist with his backpack … Read more
Just like the Christmas Season comes with its own set of smells, flavors and color palette, so does the Holy Week celebrations. I can bring to you still photos, slide shows, video clips and sounds. But I can not bring you the smells. Like I said back in the Virgin of Guadalupe Day, … the incredible power of the sense of smell can detonate nostalgic memories… if only the smells could be seized like Patrick Süskind suggested in his masterpiece Das Parfum (Perfume). How could one go about imprisoning the mixture of the smells of copal incense, corozo palms, fireworks, pine needles, moisten saw dust, fresh tropical fruits, palm flower arrangements and sweat into a digital format readily available to download onto your own computer?
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! 😉
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.
One characteristic which I enjoy about processions is the sorrowful tunes that are played by the mournful marching bands that follow the floats. Come back tomorrow to hear a sample piece; in the mean time I can only advance to you that they sound like the Godfather Soundtrack. Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua … Read more