The Main Float
Spain, being a very devout Catholic country, took lots of things with them when they departed Guatemala and Central America such as gold, silver and other religious artefacts, but they did leave one thing behind – the Catholic religion. We are in the season of Lent, which is the season that leads up to Easter, and the whole town seems to be decked out in purple. There are purple flags, purple bunting, people wearing purple, and all the purple clothes are on the shop models. Today is Sunday and it’s the third Sunday of Lent, which means it’s the day of all the processions.
For most of the day, the locals have been roping off the streets and clearing them of cars, then starting to lay beds of flowers and plants all the way down the cobblestones for the procession to pass over. It’s not just a random laying of leaves and flowers – they lay out stencils on the ground and then use the various colours and textures of the flowers and plants to make an intricate picture, presumably something to do with Easter, that the procession gaily walk across later in the afternoon.
People have been lining the streets for hours and starting to take claim their viewing spot, even though the procession won’t start till 5 PM tonight. It’s going to be a long day and a big affair.
We’ve seen fireworks over the churches in the evening, and the markets are all set up in the church forecourts to sell people dinner as they wait, but first it was our turn. It was going to be a quiet day of rest and recovery after a long day yesterday, and Brendan is leaving to go back home this morning, so we went out for a local breakfast, which the usual fashion turned out to be more than we could eat.
After time to catch up on things that we had missed yesterday, we farewelled Brendan, then went for a walk around the town, searching for the elusive local market. Finally found it, and it was certainly huge, though there was nothing we really wanted to buy.
The procession kicked off at 5pm, and passed really near our accommodation, so we stood on the footpath with thousands of others to watch. There were probably thousands of participants – everything from band members, incense twirlers, float carriers, people to lift up the power lines, banner carriers, soldiers, and if you didn’t have a specific job you just donned purple robes if you were a guy, and black mourning dresses if you were female (sorry about the undecided) and walked along with the rest.
The float with Jesus carrying the cross was carried by about 30 men (with a substitute team at the ready), and the float with Mary was carried by around 30 women. Each one had soldiers, a band, a rope to cordon it off from the crowd, and incense twirlers.
And to top it all off, there was a fleet of street sweepers, a front end loader and two tip trucks at the end of the procession to pick up the litter and all the street carpets.
Mary’s float carried by the girls
The Procession
Cleaning up
Breakfast
Local market
Fireworks over the church