Semana Santa

The week leading up to Easter is a huge deal in Spanish-speaking super Catholic countries, and we had a front row view of a great deal of it. First, on Sunday, there was a concert in the Plaza San Francisco where there was a choir singing a traditional religious piece (never found out exactly what), but the featured aspect of this performance was that all the bells in all 18 churches throughout the old part of the city were chiming along with them. It was a bit strange, as the chiming didn´t really go along as harmoniously with the singers as we expected. However, there was an entertaining jumbo tv screen showing the guys with piercings, ponytails, and “oh my god I´m on tv” faces ringing the bells with the guidance of their bell-side conductor. After the performance there were huge fireworks which were made even more incredible by the fact that they were exploding dangerously close to our heads.

We spent the rest of the week working until Friday, the main event. Here they follow the tradition from Spain of having a huge procession imitating the stations of the cross graphically. Included are cucuruchos (the anonymous penitent with scary purple hoods (yes the kkk got the idea from this stuff, so its a little weird for the American psyche)), female veiled mourners, people bearing crosses (complete with “Roman soldiers” whipping them along the way), Jesus impersonators, and finally 2 floats. Both floats are adorned with flowers. One features Jesus and the other Mary. When I saw these processions in Sevilla there was an individual procession for each congregation in the city, each with its patron version of the virgin Mary, each with its own color hood. All the processions would end in the central cathedral. But here in Quito, there was just one procession, but it was monstrous.

We walked around it in the hot sun trying to get as good a view as we could when Ricardo, our resident guide and incidentally now Abigail´s boyfriend, suggested we climb the towers in the basilica (just a $2 entry fee) to get a better, more comfortable view. It was a complete success. Actually, even better than the high up views was the super close up views I got when we crossed the procession to get to the side where we could get to the basilica.

After the procession we headed (starving) to Ricardo´s family´s home in the south of Quito to have fanesca, the traditional semana santa soup. It has 12 grains in it, representing the 12 apostles, and tasted fantastic. Apparently they only eat it once a year around here, but I want to learn how to cook it so I can make it from time to time anyway. Ricardo has been extremely welcoming and helpful to us. Check out the Viernes Santo set on my flickr.