My holy, holy week

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Bolivia is very holy. I enjoyed learning and experiencing the Bolivian traditions. The relationship between the indigenous leaders and the elected leaders as well as the towns indigenous traditions and catholic traditions were all very visible during the holy week.

Palm Sunday:
The town proecessions started. A large loop (a few blocks larger than the plaza) was done each night. At each of the four corners of the loop there were altars set up with candles, pictures of Jesus, and flowers. On Palm Sunday the town processed around with their large, beauiful palm fronds that were adorned with gorgeous tropical flowers. Palm Sunday in the states is my favorite because it is such a nice visual mass, but this was like that times 100! Bella!!!!

Mass for me started back again on Holy Wednesday. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all consisted of processions around the town. Each night I was grabbed ahold of by my friend of the week- an older woman named Lola. Lola never married or had any kids, so she really appreciated having someone to spend holy week with. She is a fiesty woman, who had her favorite spot in the procession right behind the Virgin Mary. There was nothing that could keep Lola and I from getting the best spot in the procession, she grabbed ahold of my hand tightly and dragged me through the thousands of people in the procession and the military marching band! Each night mass started around 7:30, the processions ended around 10 and then there was a traditional flag waving dance done by a different indigenous leader. The flag waving dance was extremly different and beautiful. It was almost like a combination on martial arts and dance. The leader would take a specific number of steps forward holding a large flag on a long pole and the wave it in a figure eight type movement. Every move was calculated and intentional.


Holy Wednesday:
The indigenous leaders in the town had been preparing for weeks for Semana Santa. Every year they make thousands of candles from pigs fat! I was lucky enough to be given one of the precious candles in Holy Wednesday mass. It was obvious that this was something special from the looks on anticipation and then excitment on the older women's faces when they recieved their candles. It was like they had waited all year to recieve this candle. Just seeing their excitment at recieving this simple thing brought tears to my eyes. During the processions, I occasionally got whiffs of bacon- kinda good, but also occasionally really bad whiffs of burning fat- yuck... my hands were also covered in greasy wax- gross!

Holy Friday:
Holy Friday is the day that Catholics and Christians recognize as the day that Jesus died on the cross. In the mass on this day, I got to witness a real dramatic version of taking Jesus down from cross. The lifesized Jesus, was very lifelike with joints that moved as he was taken down. Immediately everyone in the church lined up to physically kiss the statue. After this, he was then placed in a glass tomb in the front. I had noticed that many people had brought little bags into church, and now they were opening them... it turned out that everyone brought their own perfume/ colone or water to "perfume" Jesus, as was done in the Biblical story... after being sprayed by hundereds of perfumes, Jesus and the church was quite smelly, and we started out on the procession.

Holy Saturday:
This was the real celebration of Jesus's resurrection. Before mass there was a blessing of fire and water, the natural elements of the earth. There was a huuuuge bonfire outside of the chruch and we all lit our pigs fat candles from the fire. People brought old soda and oil bottles filled with water to be blessed as well. Mass did not start this night until 10:30. It was a long mass and many of the old women I was sitting next to were falling asleep. n The head bobbing in church always makes me laugh uncontrollably, but I tried to hold it in. I usually go to bed reaaaallly early too, so it was a little bit of a struggle for me as well. The mass consisted of many readings and some beautiful music accompanied by my new Argenitine friends who are working with the local orquestra and choir. I was exhausted especially after being at mass so much in the past week and I was thinking of trying to skip out on the procession, being that it was already past midnight. But once again, I was grabbed excitedly by Lola, and I couldn't turn her down, so off we went.

It turned out that this procession was totally different- it was a celebration! The women all went one way, following the Virgin Mary altar, and the men went the other way, following the Jesus altar- a race to the other side! The women, were excited, and walked fast, we sang happily and reached the other side before the men, who were not singing (I think it was the singing that really sped us along). The women won!!!!!! After this, I was invited to Lolas house for cake and coffee- it was already 2:30 am. When I finally got home at around 3 am I excitedly opened my easter basket/box from Granny and Grandpa. They had surprsed me with candy and treats from the states! yummmm! What a great easter celebration!