In 2010 and again this year we found ourselves in Catholic-dominated countries with strong Holy Week traditions dating back centuries. Although personally not religious, one can’t help but be amazed at the traditions and devotion of those who are committed believers. Here in San Miguel those traditions and the devotion were on display for Semana Santa.

Semana Santa

In 2010 we enjoyed a world famous celebration of Semana Santa in Granada, Spain. The crowds there were magnitudes larger, the pageantry enormously impressive and the scale and scope of the celebration breathtaking. Semana Santa in San Miguel is beautiful, impressive in its devotion, and has a solemn meaningful feeling created by the devout Catholics who migrate here. We are told Catholics from all over the country come to San Miguel for Semana Santa because this city preserves the historic traditions. Let’s take a look at those…

Holy Week (Latin: Hebdomas Sancta or Hebdomas Maior, “Greater Week” in Christianity) is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter. The week begins with Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday), we all know that one. Not so familiar, Holy Monday (or Fig Monday), Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday (sometimes called Spy Wednesday). This quickly gets complicated for many of us. Toward the end of the week things heat up,  there is Maundy (Holy) Thursday and of course Good Friday. On Holy Saturday the celebration of Easter begins after sundown. Easter Vigil is the longest and most solemn of the Catholic Church’s Masses, lasting up to three or four hours.

The San Miguel celebration started on Friday March 30, on that day, Our Lady of Sorrows, San Miguel is adorned in purple, white and green. Homes, businesses and public spaces decorate altars that are on display late into the night. The display hosts offer visitors fruit drinks or ice cream.

Neighborhood decorated in purple and white

Here are a two altar displays using grasses, flowers and oranges for Our Lady of Sorrows celebration…

Typical Our Lady of Sorrow display

A Favorite

The story unfolds beginning with Palm Sunday, with two processions representing Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, where he is greeted by palm waving residents. Seemingly everyone in the city was waving palm fronds. It was the palm weaving that caught my eye…

Palm Sunday

The artistry of palm weaving was on display everywhere.

For us the next big event was Jueves Santo, when all the churches in town set up altars representing Christ in different passages. We visited ten of the 14 churches,  joining throngs of people waiting in long lines to walk through the church and see the displays.

These traditions go back hundreds of years. It seemed like the entire city turned out.

 And each scene was different.

Woman Marchers