Holidays and Celebrations in San Antonio Palopo
Holy Week
San Antonio Palopo celebrates many unique holidays. The most commonly known are
Holy Week, San Antonio's Annual Festival, Christmas, Devil Burning and Day of the Dead.
Holy Week also known as ( Semana Santa ) is a celebration of the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The entire village participates in this event. Activities begin around between March 22 and April 23. The celebration begins on Palm Sunday. The locals will gather at the Catholic church in the center of town. Often so many people participate that the church is over crowded and people stand outside on the steps of the entrance to the church.
All week religious programs are played on TV. Movies with stories stories telling about, Jesus, John the Baptist, Moses, Mary and Joseph are very popular.
Photos below are Alfombras which are typically made of dyed sawdust and arranged one the streets of where the processions will pass.
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On Good Friday many of the locals will wake up at 4:00 Am to begin making carpets. (alfombras) These are often very colorful works of art placed along the streets that the procession will pass. Alfombras are often made from dyed sawdust and are carefully arranged on the streets. Neighbors and families often work together and take a great amount of pride in the achievement of having a beautifully covered street.
( This puts a halt to traffic to anyone who wants to drive through San Antonio. Don't plan to travel to San Antonio Palopo from
Panajachel on this day because in Santa Catarina the town between the two also covers its streets with alfombras. If your thinking of
making the trip by car ( It wont happen.) But you can fetch a local pickup ( taxi ) which will drop you off at the towns end and you can
walk to the other side and catch another pickup to bring you to your final destination. )
 | Groups of men and boys dressed in purple robes will carry a large statue of Jesus carrying the Cross. Women and girls will carry the sad virgin mother Mary. In these processions the group carrying Jesus always goes first. Often times there are hundreds of local followers joining the procession. Young men will stand about one hundred yards back from the procession with a gasoline powered electric generator. This is to provide lights for the statues and PA system which plays sad sounding music. Shortly after the women come carrying Mother Mary. The locals say that Mary is looking for her son Jesus. Some times the women will have another procession after holy week, saying Mother Mary is still searching for Jesus. |
In La Antigua Guatemela the world's second largest Holy Week procession takes place, Spain holds the largest.
