Good Friday...a solemn circus

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Last night at 9 pm I had witnessed the beginning of a family's alfombra. It was their 49th carpet and they are already planning for next year and their 50th anniversary of carpet making. The wooden frame was already filled in and leveled off with sawdust. Several men were laying on boards stretched above the street and placing the stencil forms on the sawdust. This would be their canvas. Bags of colored sawdust- their paint- were piled on the sidewalk.

Now at 5 a.m the carpet was almost finished. It was a fantastic underwater scene with light blue, turquoise, navy and cobalt blue sawdust representing water. There was green seaweed. There were orange, yellow, silver and spotted fish 'swimming' amongst the weeds and shells. Along the edges were elaborate swirly designs. The same men who started the carpet last night were still working on it, painstakingly filling in the designs with different colors of sawdust. All this work and planning to be scattered in seconds when the first float passed over it.

La Merced church, a huge yellow building with elaborate designs in white that make it look like a decorated cake, was the start of this morning's procession. By 5:45a.m. most of the men and women were in place. The organizational skills that it takes to run one of these processions is worthy of a battlefield commander.

First came about 20 'Roman' soldiers on horseback. Their silver breastsplates glistened in the early morning sun. Attached to silver pins on their shoulders were long black capes that flowed over the horses. Next were foot soldiers with red capes and instead of feathers for plumes they used the red brush tops of brooms. They looked quite authentic. More foot soldiers followed and then rows of young boys carrying beautifully hand calligraphied signs in latin. The 'real' procession was yet to start but already all the statues from the church were lined up on the shoulders of purple robed men. Interspersed among the marchers were ice cream vendors with tinkling bells, cotton candy sellers holding trays of 30 pink fluffy cavity inducers, hawkers of sparkly Sponge Bobs and all sorts of plastic toys, and the always present 'nut' man with huge bags of cashews and peanuts for sale. It felt like the circus was in town.

A single drum beat sounded repeatedly and the vendors cleared off the street. A battalion of purple robed boys, swinging censers full of 'copal'( incense), came by. They thoroughly enjoyed filling the streets and air with smothering smoke. Next was Pontius Pilot- a role that nobody wanted this year because he has to walk for 15 hours without a break.
Finally, the float came in view. It was about 50 feet long with the figure of Christ in a red robe holding a bloody cross. It was supported by about 40 men on each side. At the corner in front of me was a man holding a placard with the #2 on it. More purple robed men gathered around him. They were getting ready for a shift change. This happens so smoothly that unless you are watching closely you miss it.
Behind me on the sidewalk was a man,his wife and 9 year old daughter. As the float passed they lit large white candles and blessed themselves.
Despite the often carnival atmosphere around the church with food vendors selling anything that can be fried in vats of boiling oil or cooked on grubby grills and all the hawkers in the streets, the processions themselves are very serious and spiritually moving.
The devotion of the people to the enormous task of preparing for the procession, the expense of the robes and other 'costumes', the time and effort to make the elaborate or simple 'alfombas', the musicians who have to march for 12 hours, the fathers who carry infants in their arms the entire route, the others who hold the hand of their child as the child, similarly robed walks beside him or under the float is quite moving.
This barely begins to tell the whole story. I would urge you to make it a priority on your 'travel wish list' to experience it for yourself.
Carolyn

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