I had the great pleasure of spending Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua, and just got home. I’m now exhausted from my vacation.
Antigua itself is a beautiful city, and has actually become my favorite place in the world. However, Antigua changes a lot for Holy Week. Already a tourist city, Antigua transforms itself into an extravaganza of religious icons and attractions. The streets swarm with tourists from all over Guatemala, and the world. Already popular cathedrals are bombarded with tourists, and everyone has a camera. I think that I am now in hundreds of pictures taken all over Antigua.
Walking the streets of Antigua this week has been quite the experience, about like walking through the streets of New York except nobody is in a hurry and everyone is eating street food, conversing casually with friends, and hanging around in the park with their kids. Everynight, and sometimes in the afternoons, the processions stop everything and everyone from moving around. People are naturally drawn to the procession line. A swarm of men dressed in bright purple robes take over the streets of Antigua, holding the procession float. The main float is about 30 feet long and has the image of Jesus dragging the cross. The floats are decorated with flowers, lights, candles, and other adornments. I learned this week that the churches of Antigua have about a dozen of these floats and each one is designed to replicate the image of one of the stations of the cross . Behind the Jesus float is a band consiting of tubas, clarinets, oboes, picalos, and drums playing a somber song. Following close behind is a procession of women carrying a smaller float of the Virgin Mary.
The most interesting part of this week for me were the alfombras. Alfombras are carpets that are made in the streets for the procession to walk over. They are made of sawdust that has been dyed different colors, flowers, candles, and whatever else the designer puts into them. These creations are sprayed with water to keep the sawdust damp so that the wind doesn’t carry it away. My awesome spanish teacher, Willy, took me on a small tour of alfombras that were close to the school the other day. The details that go into this project is amazing. Families spend anywhere from 8 to 18 hours building these street carpets, which are dedicated to the path of the processions. Where one alfombra gets walked on, another may be built again if another procession will be on the same route.
Viernes Santa (Holy Friday) is the biggest day of Holy Week. Families come from all over into Antigua to see the processions, which seem to run all day long in various parts of the city. Last night in Central Park, thousands of people gathered to see the largest procession of the entire week, which was televised on several networks.
While the quietness of Antigua, something that I have really come to love, was disrupted by this holiday week… it was quite an amazing experience to be a part of it.
