Well, I came back from my trip on Monday, last Monday that is. And I was really tired, so I didn’t do anything that night. So for me, Tuesday started the processions and all that “Semana Santa” or “Holy Week” entails.
Since Guatemala is mainly a Catholic region, they have a lot of traditions that come with it. One tradition that is common in Antigua is to have processions, which are like parades, only with out the candy and the floats and all that. People go to the church and pay for a spot to walk in the procession. They pay more or less Q40 which is about $5 to be able to carry in the procession. Everyone has a turn and a certain number as to when they will be able to carry. The people carry an “anda,” which is basically another word for a float, more or less. I don’t think it really translates into English. The andas have different figurines on top of the life of Jesus, especially the last week that he was living. So the processions leave from either a church in Antigua or from a pueblo outside of Antigua and they then come to Antigua carrying the anda on their shoulders. They then walk around Antigua with the anda and there is one anda for the men and the other is for the women. The anda that the women carry has the Virgin Mary on it as a figurine. Each time they have a procession the scene of Mary and of Jesus changed. Many of the processions were for adults but they also had one for kids or teenagers, who were also able to then participate in the carrying. The majority of the time, the men wore purple robes and the women wore black clothing. However, on Good Friday, the men and women wore black symbolizing the death of Jesus. I’m not quite sure where this tradition of carrying a heavy thing one their shoulders started from and what it symbolizes, but I think that it symbolizes the weight of their sins, and it is part of their duty to feel somewhat of what Jesus felt when he went to the cross. I’m not sure if this is the exact symbolism, but this is what I make it out to be. Following the anda is a band playing music and then the anda of the Virgin Mary follows that.
Another tradition that goes along with this is building “alfombras” or carpets or rugs. At the beginning of the week it was more common to see people building alfombras out of flowers, vegetables or fruits. But near the end of the week it was more common to see alfombras made out of dyed saw dust. They would build the alfombras for the people carrying the anda to walk over. So to me, it sort of resembled Palm Sunday when people laid down their coats or palm branches for Jesus to walk over. People put hours of work into these alfombras only for them to be walked over a ruined within minutes. The ones made out of flowers, fruit or verduras were easier to make and often done by free hand. However, the ones made out of the colored saw dust was a different story. People would cut molds out of card board, like flowers or other things and then they fill the holes in with different colors of saw dust. Ah, this is somewhat confusing to explain, so I’m trying my best...
The carpets turn out to be these magnificent pieces of work that you would’ve never thought would be possible to make out of saw dust. Ashley and Becky, 2 people in my group, were invited by their family to help make an alfombra Thursday night into Friday, which is a big deal because it’s mainly a family sort of tradition. They started working about 9:30 or 10 at night and finished the next morning at about 6 or 6:30, just before the procession arrived in front of their house. The end result was beautiful.
I only obtained about 4 hours of sleep Thursday night into Friday because we were walking around, watching all the alfombras being made and then I woke up early and went to watch the procession at Becky and Ashley’s house. After the procession went by I went back to sleep for a couple hours and then got a message that I was able to go help Becky and Ashley’s family build another, smaller alfombra at their house because there was going to be another procession going by their house. So Kristin, Alicia (my professor who was staying at my house), and a granddaughter of my host mom went over to their house to help build the alfombra. It was interesting to watch the whole process and then actually help with it. It was kind of sad to see our work to be walked over and trampled in less than 2 minutes, but it was an experience I won’t forget.
This is just another alfombra that I really liked.
By Friday I had made friends with some of the grandchildren of my host mom because they were there all week. Thanks to Alicia, we had a game to play, Uno. It turned out that some of the grandsons and their fathers, as well as Jose, who works in the house, were going to be in the procession. So Alicia and I found out where this procession was going through and we went to find them. We were doubtful because there were a lot of people in that procession and they would have been walking for many hours...however, we had success. We ended up seeing them and trying to take pictures of them walking in their robes. However, it was really dark, so my pictures didn’t turn out to well. But luckily we were able to get a picture of some of them before they left the house. So that was exciting to see people that we knew walking in the procession.
By the end of the week, I had probably seen over 75% of the processions, which is a lot, because there were usually 2 or more everyday. With that came the smell of incense that people walk in front of the andas with. They wave incense in front of the andas to more or less “consecrate” the area that the procession will walk through. Sometimes it wasn’t bad, but on Good Friday, it was really bad. There were a lot of people with incense and you could hardly see across the street because it was so thick. So by the end of the week, I was ready to be done smelling it.
Saturday was just a chilaxin’ day. But there was another procession that I ended up going to. I saw it go by the Catedral, which is right in front of Central Park. This was interesting to see because there was lots of incense and was just for the Virgin Mary and over 75% of the people were holding candles, so it was like a vigil. It was gorgeous to see, and sadly enough, I can say that my camera didn’t take very decent pictures of this :( But it’ll be a memory that I won’t forget.
Then came Easter Sunday or “Pascua.” This isn’t celebrated that much here in Guatemala. A lot of the people focus more on the suffering of Jesus. However, there was a procession on Sunday that started from Hermano Pedro, the hospital/church that I volunteer at. This was exciting, even though I didn’t see it leave the church. It was exciting that such a joyous and happy procession was leaving one of the most hopeless places of Antigua. To me this says something about the ministry of Hermano Pedro. To me, it means that some of the people that work with the patients and the church do have hope and there is a chance for the patients of Hermano Pedro. This procession had happy music, men and women were carrying the same anda and no one was in any sort of specific robes or clothing. It was a happy and alegre festival, which was fun to watch.
So I think this somewhat covers what I had witnessed last week, or at least I hope it explains Semana Santa. I’m not sure if I hit it all or if I explained it really well. It’s something that one has to experience for themselves. So I hope the pictures fill it in a little more too. There were definitely more people here than I ever thought could fit into one city, so life was crazy, but fun. I was able to spend more time with people from my group because we didn’t have school or anything, so it was a nice break.
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