Tunja, Easter Festival

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After Bogotá we headed to Tunja the City of churches. Which we were hoping would be a good place to witness the Easter festivities. Like I have mentioned before Latin America is a very religious place and this was proved in Tunja.

On the Easter Friday there were lots of things going on and was difficult to try and be in a number of different places to try and see as much as possible. The streets were lined and packed with people and a procession went throughout the town, which included bands from school children to the military. The bands were split up by various congregations of the many churches all carrying plinths with various effigies of Jesus and Mary. They would all be barefoot and dressed in some amazing robes and a number of different colours and for some reason a common theme was they all had pointy hats that would come down and cover there faces. Very similar to the KKK and not sure what the purpose of this was? (see pictures)

The reason why it was difficult to be in so many places was because for me the most impressive part was when they came out of their respective churches. The churches would be packed with people and you could see everybody preparing themselves for the procession, very hectic and lots to see with everybody singing various songs. Once all the churches were in the street they would do a lap of the town surrounding the main square and then eventual all end up lined on various sides of the square facing the Cathedral. In the center of the square there were thousands of people all waiting for the bishop to give his speech. After a speech of 15 minutes or so he then walked around the square and stopped at each plinth and gave his blessings. Between each stop the crowd would come alive with song and prayer. We are not religious but it was interesting to be a part of this and it was great to see a festival that brings the people of the city together.

Tunja is a Beautiful city with a nice main square with lots of beautiful buildings and churches and a very easy place to stroll around for a few hours and take it all in. It was also one of the best places in Colombia to get some great food and all very cheap and huge portions for about 3-4 pounds.

Some of the local Attraction to Tunja was the village of Villa De Leyva, Very beautiful town with some more beautiful buildings and cobbled streets. Very oldey worldly and a popular destination for Colombians on holiday. Lots of great cafes to sit around and people watch.

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Photos

Spooky!
Looks like a ghost image in one of the many churches of Tunja! I´m hoping it was somebody walking very fast just as I took the picture, but who knows?!

Church procession.
Check out the Roman soldiers.

Church procession.
Very strange hats!

Market seller.
Lime and insense sellers.

Villa de Leyva.
White buildings and cobbled streets.