Palm Sunday in Antigua

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Disclaimer: This Palm Sunday from a Jew´s perspective...

Ok so my understanding of Palm Sunday is commemorating the day when Jesus road into Jerusalem on a horse just before he was captured by the Romans (thanks Grego). Antigua is apparently THE place to be in all of Central America for their Holy Week (Semana Santa) processions and vigils throughout the week. Sunday was the first big one and started at 11am outside the large La Merced Church with crowds of thousands of people watching the parade. Not quite as big as Macy´s but still....

The church members dress in these purple robes and carry the giant float of Jesus bearing the cross while hundreds of other lead and follow him around town. The procession continues for nearly 12 hours! Then they do it again later in the week leaving/returning to a different church.

The streets are all lined with colorful Alfombras (spanish word for carpet) but its really not a carpet at all, they are made out of dyed saw dust and flowers to create colorful pictures which soon after get trampled by the procession. More pictures of the Alfombras to follow, I will actually be making one with my Spanish school late Thursday night.

Fun Fact of the Day: This computer is set in Spanish so spell check is saying I´ve spelled every single word wrong!

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Photos

Start of the Procession
The crowd outside the La Merced Church waiting for the procession to begin

The Romans are coming!
Kinda odd that they have people dressed as Roman Soldiers supposedly to march Jesus to his death

There he is!
JC bearing his burden, while about 100 people bear the burden of carrying him.

The Limbo
JC has to do the limbo under power cables see the people with the tridents holding them up

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Spectators

Comments

[uncle saul]

sedar at your parents home
One of the highlights of the night was your father's demo of your blog. Both cousin Roger and I got your blog forwarded to us. I didn't review it until today. The pictures and your text are wonderful. The Sedar was great and even your uncle Jonathon was "friendly". Continue to enjoy yourself, see and learn all you can and keep sending the the interesting stuff to us. Love and the best of luck on your adventure. Uncle Saul