Experiencing Easter in Guatemala – With No Bunny in Sight

Rising up in Canada, Easter consisted of waking up, grabbing our vibrant baskets and setting off to scour the yard for plastic eggs stuffed with jellybeans and candies! The commercials on TV all the time had a cute, furry bunny hopping spherical, and the shops have been stuffed with eggs and bunnies in sweet kind. After we moved out to stay on our personal, we considered Easter as an extended weekend, giving us an extra break day of labor, and an extra evening to get collectively on the bar!

We had all the time questioned how/why bunnies and eggs have been related to this spiritual time…and to be sincere, we solely merely lately discovered.

The thought-about an Easter Bunny (or Easter Hare/Easter Rabbit), originated amongst German Lutherans all through the 1600s. Very like Santa, the rabbit would resolve whether or not or not or not youngsters have been good or unhealthy, and based completely on that, whether or not or not or not or not they’d pay money for any presents. It was a typical notion that hares have been hermaphrodites, which signifies that they might reproduce with out shedding their virginity! It was this thought that led to an affiliation with the Virgin Mary, tying rabbits with the church. There are various the explanation why eggs are related to Easter. Christians tie eggs to rebirth, as Jesus rose from the grave, and plenty of individuals paint eggs the color purple to counsel the blood shed within the midst of the crucifixion of Christ.

For us, this yr’s Easter was more than likely basically probably the most unbelievable one nevertheless. It wasn’t stuffed with chocolate and sweet, it was additional of a spiritual affair. Together with Seville in Spain, town of Antigua, Guatemala celebrates this time of yr with gusto! Since we dwell on Lake Atitlan, merely 2.5 hours away from town, we figured we needed to go and expertise the Holy Week celebration, moreover known as Semana Santa.

We had missed the Good Friday processions, nonetheless that didn’t matter, we have been nonetheless in time to see the floats and celebrations in honour of the Virgin Mary. The streets have been busy and buzzing with locals and vacationers alike – all individuals on this unbelievable spectacle.

Vibrant carpets (rugs) created by households adorned the cobblestone streets alongside the procession routes. These intricate designs are distinctive to every family and are created from colored sawdust, flower petals, pine needles and sand. Households spend hours, and even days, creating these carpets, solely to have them trampled by the processions that cross by. After we have been watching, we seen that the work went untouched by the band members and incense bearers, solely these which have been carrying the floats (breathe) depicting Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary walked over these masterpieces.

On account of the processions moved slowly alongside the freeway from the late afternoon into the night, we couldn’t assist nonetheless be mesmerized by the banging of the drums, the hypnotic footwork of these carrying the floats and the intoxicating scent of the incense burning all by the streets.

We spent 2 days in Antigua and though we wished we had been there for the prior processions, we have been cozy to expertise what we did. It was a really memorable second in journey. Affirm the video we product of the Easter celebrations correct proper right here:

Have you ever ever ever ever knowledgeable any spiritual celebrations like this before?! The place?

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