A small rock in the Atlantic

Holy Week

Holy week procession, San Jose, Breña Baja

The schools have just broken up for Semana Santa - Holy week. Of course my son's delighted, even though they only get this week off.

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are public holidays. Monday 6th is not.

Holy week procession, San Jose, Breña Baja

There will be lots of religious processions all week, everywhere, and some fairly spectacular ones, especially in Santa Cruz. We had the first one in San Jose tonight, with the municipal band at the back, providing the sad music. I liked the way the younger incense carriers were solemnly trying to get it right.

Holy week procession, San Jose, Breña Baja

Labels: boat procession, easter, Holy week, La Palma, La Plama, religion

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The Day of the Dead

Halloween isn't much of a fiesta here, although it's becoming more popular. All Saint's Day is. Traditionally, it's when people remember their dead. So they decorate the graves in the morning, and most cemeteries have a special mass.

It's fascinating to see, but please be sensitive. Some people may be recently bereaved and feeling fragile.

Labels: All Saints, fiestas, La Palma, religion, The Day of the Dead

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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).