Holy Week in Antigua

After spending Monday in a very quiet clinic in Nueva Santa Catarina (less than 12 patients, probably - which was okay with us - we were both tired), we drove to Antigua on Wednesday for the Holy Week celebration there. It was our first "solo" vacation since our anniversary in October, so it was very welcome.

Antigua, Guatemala hosts the second largest Holy Week celebration in the world, right behind one in Spain. It has been going on here since the early 1500s, when the Conquistators started the tradition. Over 125,000 people come in from all over the world. There are plenty of gringos, both from North America and Europe, as well as plenty of locals and other world travelers (we even saw groups from Japan and China).

The festivities started with the beginning of Lent, but really come to a head the last few days of Holy Week. Thursday and Friday are the biggest days. It's a good thing we showed up on Wednesday, because after that, the ability to drive on streets is not so good. They are almost all completely blocked off at one time or another for the carpets or the processions.

If you live on one of the parade routes, it is a common tradition to build an "alfombra" or "carpet" in the middle of the street. These are usually made with colored sawdust and plants. We'll put in a few pics here and in the following posts. They are absolutely spectacular. Many take several hours to make and are utterly destroyed by the processions. The goal is to finish just minutes before the procession comes through. Some families will work through the night to have their alfombra ready for an early morning procession.

The processions begin with literally hundreds of purple-clad men, all carrying spears, who start to line the streets ahead of the floats. The men are all parts of teams to carry the floats. They can take up to 80 men to carry one, as some weigh over 7,000 lbs. The figures on the floats are often 400-500 years old and often have real hair. The teams will switch out as often as every block. One of the standard bearers will have a placard with the number of the team currently carrying the float. Teams are organized by shoulder-height (for obvious reasons).

Following the main float will usually be a band. Matt cringed a little bit at each one - they're clearly chosen for enthusiasm and not musical skill level, but that's how it goes.

Following the band is usually a series of other banners and then a float with the Virgin Mary on it. This float will be carried by women. They aren't as big as the main floats, but we still saw some that required 20-30 women to carry them.

There are lots of Roman soldiers, priests, people carrying paintings of apostles, and many other participants, but the floats are obviously the big draw.

In the United States, we've sanitized Holy Week quite a bit. Mel Gibson's movie created a lot of stir and there wasn't nearly as much blood and gore in that movie as we saw on some of these floats (or in your typical action flick, but never mind that). Unfortuately, the biggest thing here is Good Friday with Easter itself being largely ignored. There are a few resurrection parades, but the vast majority have to do with the suffering and death of Jesus.

So we've got some pictures here and in the following few posts... The first is the obligatory self portrait - we had discovered a very cool Cuban restaurant with live music (great stuff) and the moment seemed right... Plus, Heidi's got her new glasses on that we just bought in Guatemala City.

The next few are of some of the alfombras. Note in the first alfombra pic that you can see people sitting on boards suspended over the carpet, still working on it. And on one, you can see that the Holy Week theme isn't necessarily a requirement... who knew?