Dozens of faithful dressed in a toga and a purple headdress carry in rhythm on their shoulders an imposing chest with representations of Jesus or the Virgin. In the streets of Antigua, they move slowly on multicolored carpets of flowers or fragrant sawdust.
In Guatemala, as in the Catholic world, the processions of Holy Week, which goes from Lent Sunday to Easter Sunday, have been celebrated with particular fervor since their inscription in November on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the Unesco.
“For us, it’s a reason for great joy to participate and it’s a very special day,” lawyer Roberto Matheu told AFP, as he put the final touches to a carpet of flowers. he made with his family in a downtown street.
This 45-year-old lawyer explains that he has been making these ephemeral works of art since childhood, which are destroyed as the procession passes.
In the streets of Antigua, a tourist town 40 km southwest of the capital, the procession of Jesus of Humility is an opportunity to reenact the Passion of Christ (all the events that preceded and accompanied the death of Jesus of Nazareth), with worshipers dressed as Roman soldiers.
“The Jesus of Humility has always blessed us…we don’t want to lose this tradition that identifies us as Guatemalans,” José Pérez, 44, a cook at a restaurant in Antigua, told AFP. .
Near the churches and in the streets where the processions advance, stalls and itinerant vendors offer food and sweets because it is also the occasion of a popular and culinary festival.
In families, typical dishes of the colonial era are cooked, sweet dishes, pickled vegetables or dried fish differently accommodated.
Holy Week celebrations were brought to Guatemala in the 16th century by the Spanish conquistadors, but the Maya natives blended it into their traditions and worldview.
The Minister of Culture, Felipe Aguilar, underlines that the customs of Guatemala, its music, its gastronomy and its art, are the result of a “fusion of cultures”, an expression of a syncretism between Spanish Catholicism and ancestral beliefs mayans.
In the Mayan villages, the processions also invade the streets and thousands of natives dressed in their traditional costumes take turns to carry the images of the saints.
In San Andrés Sajcabaja (north-west), about fifteen faithful travel five kilometers on their knees in homage to the Passion of Christ.
Dressed in a simple loincloth, crown of thorns on their heads, they cross this village on their knees, on a course of woolen carpets.
The Maya were one of the main pre-Hispanic civilizations in America and their descendants today make up 42% of Guatemala’s 17 million people.
08/04/2023 09:59:41 – Guatemala (AFP) – © 2023 AFP