Holy Week Processions

It’s Holy Week, and in this Catholic country, a lot of people take it very seriously. The bigger churches hold processions, which look very exotic to my English eyes.

It’s not so that they take the obviously-heavy statues along the street. It’s the costumes. They remind me of the KLu Klux Klan. This is unfair, because the costumes concerned are far older than the KKK. They ensure anonimity, but it’s not to avoid prosecution; it’s to stop onlookers admiring your piety.

The Tourist Office produce a leaflet which lists the processions and their routes. These photos are of the Good Friday Calgary procession from the church of San Francisco. The men in red and white are from the Brotherhood of the Crucified and the True Cross (Cofradia del Crucificado y la Vera Cruz). Each Cofradia is dovoted to a particular statue.

This is the stature of Our Lady of Loneliness (1733, Domingo Carmona).

These statures are The Crucified (1968, Ezequiel de Leon Dominguez), The Holy Mary Magdelene (XIX century, Fernando Estevez del Sacramento) and St John the Evangelist (1863 Aureilo Carmona Lopez).

I can easily understand suffering yourself in order to reduce someone else’s suffering. Personally I don’t see the point of this.

Posted by sheila

Sheila came to La Palma with a six month contract and has stayed 24 years so far. She used to work as a software engineer at the observatory, but now she's a writer and Starlight guide.