I want to give a little belated report on our lovely Semana Santa, or Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter.
Our dear friends Paul and Charity decided to spend the first part of a belated honeymoon visiting us (along with mutual friends Ben and Joy who live in another part of Tegucigalpa). We bussed up and met them in San Pedro and spent a day and a half showing them around our old, very hot, stomping grounds. We then bussed back down to Tegucigalpa to show them our new casita and impress them with the number and variety of ant colonies flourishing here. Next on the agenda was a day-long hike through La Tigra national park and overnight stay on the other side, near the little town of San Juancito. After exploring another little town nearby the next day we got back to San Pedro and all six of us crammed into our house for the night so we'd be ready to bus to Comayagua the next day - the first Colonial capital of Honduras, a town noted for its Semana Santa celebrations.
We arrived expecting large crowds of people... only to find the town nearly deserted. It wasn't until evening that people started coming out of the woodwork, and shortly after sunset there was a re-enactment of the Last Supper in front of the Cathedral overlooking the central park and town square. That was followed by a procession, one of several during the next few days. The real excitement started around midnight when local families and business and various groups started the 9-hour process of creating alfombras, or carpets, from dyed sawdust, sand, and other natural materials. This creative marathon was the result of months of planning; we got up early to see them putting on their finishing touches. The art was incredible - I don't think I've been so excited in months and I think it was just all that creative energy in the air. I took a lot of pictures but the ones here are my favorites - a lot of the photos are of the artists themselves because that's what I found the most exciting - seeing how families and groups worked together to produce the carpets. Shortly after the carpets were completed, they were destroyed in a blaze of glory. The "blaze" coming in the form of Jesus (and several young apprentice Jesus's) carrying crosses, followed by altar boys swinging incense, several priests, and a big float with Moses and the 10 commandments, Elijah on a flaming chariot, and Jesus carrying the cross, all being hefted by about 20 young guys wearing robes and hoods that made them look creapily similar to KKK members. I'm still not quite sure about the symbolism there - we asked several people since our return and nobody seems to really know what's up with the capes. That aside, it was an impressive scene and we followed it through several stations of the cross. I was moved by this massive religious display, so unlike anything I've seen in the states.
Still to come: an update on my work on the library and la vida here in Flor del Campo. We are planning a big homemade pizza fest this Sunday afternoon to celebrate Andrew's birthday on Monday. I have discovered my favorite pizza topping combo: carmelized onions and roasted red peppers. Oh yes. We are hoping to shock and awe all of our neighbors, and see how many people we can fit into our little house.
(In case you missed the link to our pictures above, you can see more of our pictures here.)
