Viernes Santo, or What Happened in the Street 2

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I rose at 4.30am on Viernes Santo to see the 5am Viacruces. I was almost in doubt as to whether it would happen, as my leaflet of cultural events has proved ridiculously unreliable, but as I advanced towards the Parque Central gradually more and more people appeared. When this was just one person walking behind me in the dark, it was slightly disconcerting, but by the time I reached the Iglesia there were around fifty people there, some adding the finishing touches to the flower displays on the alfombras, some lighting candles off each other. I was expecting to observe the procession heading off down 4a Calle and the return to bed, but I found myself absorbed into one of the files of walkers in the procession. I was even asked to take a turn in bearing a share of the image of Christ, though I declined. The procession moved slowly, with a line of walkers on both sides of the street and people walking in the middle dressed in white robes and carrying images of the Easter story, or carrying megaphones to transmit the voice of the Priest to all the participants. At times, everyone stopped and knelt in the street to pray at which point I pulled my best 'potentially a Catholic' face and rapidly learned the Lord's Prayer in Spanish, which features a short extra part asking for protection from the Virgen Mary as well. When we weren't kneeling we were singing, songs asking for 'Señor' to pardon the blood of Christ and affirming that he would rise and save us all. And so the procession progressed, gradually swelling in numbers, as the sky gradually paled and the clouds behind us shone first peach, and then bright white and the light of the candles faded. By the time we reached El Calvario, about two hours later, I would estimate that there were around three hundred people. At this point, I slipped away, as the rest entered the church with the image. Walking back via the Parque Central, several more alfombras had been laid out and young men in purple robes with rather quirky black velvet hats were lining up ready for the next procession, though I decided I was a little too cold to hang around for that.

In the afternoon, after a decent nap and a special Good Friday lunch of fish in a delicious sauce with tamales, rice and tomato salsa, I met up with a friend and after attempting to go to two exhibitions (both closed, despite cultural leaflet saying otherwise) we sat in the Parque Central for a while. The alfombras had been walked over and cleared away, and the area was bustling with people. Afterwards, I walked up towards La Democracia to see another San Nicolas procession, the Señor Sepultaldo. This was by far the grandest so far, featuring many people robed in black with the same gnome hats, and huge floats depicting images from every stage of the Easter story, surrounded by a hazy cloud of incense.

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