Let the Processions Begin

:: Day 51 in Guatemala ::

The other day as we're driving home - correction: Oliver who is the assistant at the office is giving me a ride home - Oliver asks me if I've ever seen a procession. Sure, of course I have. They have those in LA sometimes, and I'm pretty sure I've seen some in Mexico. Then he asks me how big those processions were. Now I'm confused. Big? You mean the number of people involved? No. He means the size of the processional float (anda). So we stopped at a church on the way to my house. The thing was huge!!! I of course didn't have my camera on me this day. But when I say huge - I mean it takes 50 people to carry it.

So that leads me to this weekend, which was rather kick back. I did laundry, wrote my previous blog entry, did some reading. Sunday as I'm sitting in our little garden terrace I hear a whole lot of noise outside. I'm thinking maybe its a religious event, after-all it is a Sunday in Lent. Eventually I had leave the house to run some errands: ATM, pharmacy, pay electric bill, buy dinner. The next block over something is happening... people are arranging flowers on the floor. It is actually really pretty, and I assume it is something religious because some things are in the shapes of crosses, but I just figured I'd ask Ceci when I got back to the house.

Two hours later there are tons of people on our street. Ceci informs me that those flowers on the ground are an alformbra, a carpet made of flowers, in preparation for a procession that would be coming through soon. So naturally, I pulled out my camera and we hit the streets to see what was going on. (This alformbra is nothing compared to the elaborate ones they'll have during Semana Santa - Holy Week.)

There were street vendors, tons of people who came to watch, and cucuruchos who were dressed in white and purple robes and others who were dressed in all black. Ceci told me that these are the ones who are supposed to carry the processional float. Of course these are all Catholic devotees, but they are also the Guatemalan upper and middle class. Sure, carrying the float is a sign of devotion, but you also have to pay for your spot. So participating in these processions seems to be not only a sign of one's religious devotion but of their social status.

When the processional finally came around in front of our house, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to take video or pictures. So I took both. Unfortunately... that didn't make for a great video. So please excuse the terrible workmanship on this video and the mixing of the music... I was just looking for a drum beat to fill in the silence:

So I suppose this was only a taste of what Semana Santa will be like in Guatemala City. This particular procession was not very long. It started at a church that is about 6 blocks away and was just circling around the neighborhood before going back. That of course does not make it any less impressive.

The bad news is that as I'm scrambling to get my camera and some money so that I can take pictures of the madness and of course buy a snack from one of the street vendors - I discover that my change purse is missing. Not really that big a deal. It only had like $20-$25 in it. However, it also had my ATM card inside. Fortunately I'm paranoid enough to have put the money I had taken out of the ATM in my bra rather than in my pocket or change purse. So I still have the $200 I had just taken out and I was able to call and have it frozen before anyone could try to use it. I must have lost it somewhere between the little restaurant where I bough a Guatemalan hot dog for dinner and the two blocks I had to walk to get home. I just hope that whoever found it - really needed the money.