Good Friday Processional

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I woke up early Friday morning and took the bus to El Centro (historic district of Quito). As soon as I got off the bus I knew that I was in for a long day. There was barely enough room to get away from the bus station. It seemed like the entire city had converged on the district for the Processional of the statues of Mary and Jesus through the city. Every couple of blocks there was a station of the cross. I felt like I was in a movie... it was a normal, cloudy day, but when Jesus came out of the Cathedral the sky cleared up and the sun beat down on us. I lasted 3 hours in the sun - and we only walked 3 blocks! The Processional was spread out over 17 blocks. So I cut across to the Basilica and caught the front of the parade, which by that time had started 4 hours earlier.

Make sure you check out the video with this entry.

In the pictures, you may notice the people in pointy purple hats. These are sinners that have repented.


If interested, here is an exert from a web page on the parade:

Following the Via Crucis prayer in the morning, the religious community of Quito has only one thing on its mind: the great procession of Good Friday, which leaves from the church of San Francisco. Father John estimates that over the last years around 90,000 people have participated in the procession, not counting the tens of thousands of spectators who throng Quito's historic heart.

The procession begins at midday to recall the hour which Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus to death. The hooded cucuruchos and the robed Verónicas are the traditional figures who accompany Jesús del Gran Poder (Jesus Almighty) and the Virgen Dolorosa (Virgin of Sorrows) on the procession which starts and ends at the San Francisco church and which passes through a large swathe of the historical centre.

The cucuruchos symbolise the penitents who, dressed in purple, show their repentance and their will to change. There are also many penitents carrying crosses, or with their feet chained, or even with real thorns wrapped around their heads. The Verónicas recall the woman who came to Jesus as He carried the cross, and who wiped His face full of sweat and blood (the origin of the Shroud of Turin). In Quito, the Verónicas also wear purple, their faces hidden by black shrouds.

The procession lasts until three in the afternoon, the hour of the death of the Lord, and the Descent from the Cross is performed at six in the evening, the hour at which the day ends in Jewish culture. In many churches, the ceremony of the Seven Words and of the Descent from the Cross is performed, where the priest narrates from his pulpit how the holy women and the Apostles performed the sepulchre of Christ. During the ceremony, especially designated faithful remove the nails from the image of the crucified Christ and pass his body to a group of waiting women wearing tunics who place him in a coffer adorned with flowers and white cloth. Following this, the procession with the dead Christ takes place, with the coffer held aloft by the Santos Varones (Saintly Men) who cover their heads with white turbans.

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