As I mentioned last weekend, the village of Santa Catalina Bobadilla had an early start with its vigil on Saturday, instead of the traditional Ash Wednesday. Well, as it is the tradition in Antigua Guatemala on each week of Lent, a vigil on Wednesday and a procession on Sunday. Here’s the quick look at the … Read more
It is such impressive vista these massive floats, andas in Spanish, being carried by 80 to 100 cucuruchos through the different streets of Antigua Guatemala. At least once in your lifetime you must come to Antigua Guatemala to see the massive and numerous processions during the Holy Week or Semana Santa as it’s known in … Read more
As I have said before, the Holy Week in Antigua 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 as well. The children’s float or andas are a bit … Read more
Here’s your Holy Week Spanish word for the day: Timonel The timonel is the person at the front of the processional float that steers the float on one direction or another. In Spanish the word for timón means steering wheel. As we can see in the picture, the timonel basically pushes to the left or … Read more
As I have mentioned before, Lent and Semana Santa is an equal-opportunity tradition. As you can see here, even little girls get a chance to carry a float, small, but still their float. By the way, the male carriers are called cucuruchos and the female carriers are known as hermanas cargadoras. I call the little … Read more
The procession of the fifth Sunday of Lent is quite possibly one of the largest processions in Antigua Guatemala. People just refer to it as the procession of San Bartolo, short for San Bartolomé Becerra. This procession leaves the church around 7 am and comes back 18 hours later, sometime between midnight and 1 am. … Read more
By the end of the 4th Sunday procession which comes out of the village of Santa Ana, Nelo Mijangos had already walked 93,2 kms or 57.91 miles on four consecutive Sundays of Lent. For this procession, Nelo decided to show us a detail of the lit float taken at night. Yes, in case you didn’t … Read more
The third of Sunday of Lent is the turn for the church of Jocotenango to put the best procession possible and believe, they do. For this Sunday’s procession, Nelo Mijangos took 925 photos and walked for 21.6 kms or 13.4 miles for those live in the cocoon known as the United States. How do you … Read more
The second Sunday of Lent is the turn for the village of Santa Inés del Monte Pulciano. It is at this processional float when many cucuruchos from Guatemala City make their first appearance. For this procession, Nelo Mijangos took 752 photos and “only” walked 19.4 kilometers or 12 miles. You can see his route on … Read more
Beginning with the first Sunday after Ash Wednesday, there are processions each Sunday of Lent and the first procession comes out the village of Santa Catarina Bobadilla. Make sure you click on the images to look at a larger version to really appreciate all the details. Each day this week, Nelo will share his most … Read more
Today’s Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) which means we are at the commencement of the world-famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala. We carry on our series Antigua Lent Processions thanks to the wonderful imagery of our friend and collaborator Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos who has taken to the task to document every Lent procession in La … Read more
The San Bartolo procession is among the biggest from the Antigua Lent Processions series. In fact, I remember publishing in previous years that San Bartolo and San Felipe procession were the biggest of all the procession in Guatemala. So, I will split the all the photos in two days. When we started the Antigua Lent … Read more
We continue our series Antigua Lent Processions thanks to the wonderful imagery of our friend and collaborator Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos who has taken to the task to document every Lent procession in La Antigua Guatemala in the last decade. Santa Ana is another village of La Antigua Guatemala that is so close that you can … Read more
The village of Santa Inés is located on the edge of La Antigua Guatemala, to the right of the road that takes you to Guatemala City. I shared with you a photograph of the road taken from Santa Inés on April 1, 2011. I would venture to say that because Santa Inés village is located … Read more
North by Northwest, that’s how you get to Jocotenango from Antigua Guatemala’s Plaza Mayor (main plaza). Jocotenango is not a village of La Antigua Guatemala. Jocotenango is a municipality with its own elected mayor and all. Jocotenango is so close to La Antigua Guatemala that when you take La Calle Ancha which becomes La Calle … Read more