Friday, April 02, 2010

Semana Santa

Holy Wednesday
It has been a busy week for Semanta Santa. This was the procession on Wednesday evening. Usually this is a huge procession but this year it did not include all the angels and women carrying symbols of Christ's last week before the crucification. This year four or five of the Santos from the Oratoria church were carried to the Stations of the Cross in the Centro.  We walked along with it part of the way and then we went to the Sunset Bar to watch the lights come on in town.

Holy Thursday
By the evening of  Holy Thursday, the town was filling up with tourist. There were some gringos but mostly they were Mexican tourists. The street in front of the Parroquia was full of balloon and toy sellers, food vendors and of course people. Also in the Plaza Civica there were rows and rows of food vendors. There would be no need for anyone to go hungry.

We visited all of the churches in the Centro along with a steady stream of tourists. Then we needed nourishment too. We went to The Restaurant at Sollano 16 and sat in the bar. We knew that we could have a glass of wine and nosh on some of The Restaurant's appetizers. What we didn't know is that Thursday has become Hamburger Night. The place was full and we watched these huge delicious looking burgers being served. It had been almost a year since we had been there and restaurants come and go in San Miguel so we weren't sure if they were still living up to their reputation. They definitely are. We will be going back soon to try out Hamburger Night.
Good Friday

Today, Good Friday, there were a number of events but as usual I stayed in my colonia and followed the procession from the San Antonio church through my neighborhood to the Stations of the Cross. It is a wonderful procession and I see some of my neighbors or people I know from the tiendas. It amazes me how it all gets coordinated. There are people distributing water, men who watch to see that all of the statues can clear the low electric lines, the families that put up and decorate for each Station of the Cross and plenty of people to take turns carrying the statues. Carrying these statues is no small matter. The procession takes about three hours, on rough cobble stone streets and in San Miguel there are some steep inclines to cover.

I photographed the Good Friday procession with the Lensbaby just to change things up a bit.

2 comments:

pitchertaker said...

Don't hate me for this, but I like your pictures better when you DON'T use the Lensbaby. So there. The 5D2 handles the backlight so well...

Billie Mercer said...

I don't like these very much either but I've photographed this procession so many times that I thought I'd give something different a try. I can always count on you to tell me what you think! LOL That's what friends are for.