Semana Santa in Oaxaca
The week leading up to Easter (semana santa, or Holy Week) is a big
deal throughout Mexico. But we felt especially fortunate to be in
Oaxaca to see the celebrations there.
Most of the public events happen on Good Friday, where there are
processions at just about every church in town. (In contrast,
Easter Sunday itself was basically a regular day.) Here, Jesus
carries the cross down the street, periodically being whipped by the
Roman soldiers:
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Almost every statue of Jesus and Mary from the churchs in town were
being carried by people as they paraded down the street and prayed.
The procession would stop in front of small altars that people
put our in front of their homes: candles, the Virgin Mary, and a Chia
pet!
There were similar processions in just about every church and every
village. This is one in the nearby village of San Bartolo.
The biggest procession of them all was the large "Procession of
Silence" at the end of the afternoon that wound around the steets in
downtown Oaxaca. We had heard stories about the Procession of
Silence in Morelia, where it happens at night, with candles, and
silence except for the steady beating of a drum. The procession
in Oaxaca was more of a parade than a time of reflection.
Nevertheless, the images were impressive.
They were follwed by a long line of hooded men carrying crosses
And more groups carrying icons:
Finally near the end of the procession there was the long line of
standards. They say that many of these have been used for
generations to represent some of the important families in the area.
The processions happened at different times for different churches, but lasted well into the evening.
Here is another procession (this one several days earlier) in the town
of Teotitlan del Valle. Again the procession wound through the
streets, led by a band, and stopped at altars set up every block.
Although we didn't really understand much of what was happening,
they generously shared the ices and empanadas that were passed out by
the families on that block.
This little angel must have been part of the procession earlier in the
day, but by noon, she had had it and just to play in the shade.
She loved seeing this photo of herself.
Earlier in the week, on Palm Sunday, there were vendors outside all of the churches selling
woven palm ornaments that people would take home to adorn their houses.
It was amazing to watch them weave those, barely looking at their
hands at all but ending up with amazing creations like these:
And on Easter the easter bunny still managed to find us!
