Semana Santa
Easter week is known as Semana Santa, (Saints week) The Friday before easter week sees the tonos taken to the church.
The first procession is on the wednesday night before Good Friday from around 9.30 from the church on the Balcon
The next procession is again 9.30 from the church on the Balcon on the thursdaynight, the day before Good Friday.
At Midday on Easter Sunday there is a procession from San Salvador.
The tronos individually carry efigies of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and Saint John. A brass brand plays really mournful music, and the floats moved slowly out of the church, a very moving experience even though I am not a very religious person. The floats are obviously very heavy and need a lot of people to carry them. Some people were dressed very strangely (to me at least) with those pointed hats that I do not associate with Christianity. The origin of these pointy costumes seems to be that in the deep past wealthy people would pay someone to “do” their penitence but by dressing up no-one could tell who they were, the pointed mask helping to disguise them further by not being able to tell how tall the person really was!
A lot of the streets that the procession goes through on the Sunday are decorated with mimosa which is in full flower now and many of the balconies hang white lace from their terraces.
Monday here is just a normal day.
