While Lent has often been a sombre affair characterized by fasting, aceticism, and restraint, Antigua, Guatemala is famous for its grandiose celebrations of Lent. No need for mardi gras when you can celebrate like this during Lent.
I took so many pictures, I think I broke my camera.
Lent is called "la cuaresma" (the 40 days) here in Guatemala. Each Friday and Sunday during the 40 days before Easter, there are vigils, processions, and fombras in the villages and suburbs of Antigua. The vigils take place on Friday night. The processions happen on Sunday. Both events feature colorful, artistic "fombras".
A "fombra" is a carpet that is made on the street using colored sawdust, pine fronds, flowers, rice, beans, fruit, or reeds. Some are intricate and take large groups of people several hours to make. Others are simple. Just like individual families in Canada decorate with trees or lights, so it is here; families and business decorate their own part of the street with fombras in anticipation of the procession.
Our family had the opportunity to work with Guatemalans to make a simple fombra at our condo - Villa Orotava.
By tradition, during the Friday night "vigil", an intricate fombra is revealed in one of the small village churches near Antigua. The church which hosts the Friday night vigil will also be the starting (and ending) point for the Sunday procession. The tradition is strong and the sequence of villages is the same each year. Santa Catarina, Santa Ines, Santa Ana, etc.
Last Friday, during the second week of lent, the vigil and procession took place in the village of Santa Ines...literally only a few hundred meters from our condo. Thousands of people crammed into narrow cobblestone streets. There were hundreds of food vendors, balloons, whistles, and a brass band. It felt like the state fair came to town.
The funny thing is, the main attraction - if there is one other than the circus itself - is the fombra which is revealed inside the small village church of Santa Ines. There is a crush of people waiting for a chance to take a peak at the fombra and the artwork inside the church. The party lasts all night.
On Sunday morning, starting at 1:00, 2:00, 5:00, or even as late as 8:00 in the morning, everyone gets ready and starts making the fombras for the Sunday noon procession (which continues until 11 PM).
Our family had the chance to help 3 separate families with their fombras on the tiny streets of Santa Ines.
During the procession itself, hundreds of pilgrims dress in purple robes, wear white gloves, and carry (on their shoulders) large, religiously-themed, parade-type floats. While the brass bands play march tunes and dirges, the pilgrims trod over the beautiful fombras carrying the floats. The intricate fombras are reduced to sawdust in minutes.
It's not like a parade at home where spectators sit on the sidewalks in lawn chairs, and participants quickly glide past. Here spectators mingle with the procession. Pilgrims take turns resting, snacking at the aforementioned food stalls, and carrying the heavy floats. The procession starts from a village, parades in and around the streets of Antigua, and finally returns to the village from which it started 11 hours later.
Here are a few of the pictures we took of the event:
The making of the fombras -
A pilgrim poses by a fombra just prior to the procession
The fombra in front of Iglesia de Santa Ines
People started work at 10PM Saturday night
The carpet was finished in time for mass at 7 AM Sunday morning.
The arrival of the brass band - by chicken bus!
Of course you transport musical instruments strapped to the roof of a bus!
The procession -
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| we helped make some of the flowers on this one |
