Semana Santa en Quito

Easter has definitely been my favorite holiday spent here in Ecuador.  Holy Week, or Semana Santa, is a very big celebration here. This past week has been filled with events throughout Quito, plus lots of family time :)  

I went to several concerts in the old town - an Andean orchestra outside in the Presidential Plaza, a children's choir and a Mexican musical group both in churches of the Centro Historico (including the Compania - possibly one of the most extravagant churches in Quito).  I loved hearing live music - the orchestra especially made me realize how much I miss orchestra and the cello!  

On Good Friday, or Viernes Santo, I went to the Old Town for the processions.  Some of you may have heard or seen photos of this, especially of the "KKK-like" people.  I'm so glad I had the chance to experience this religious tradition.  I went to the "Jesus del Gran Poder" processions (the most popular and largest), which lasted for about 3 hours and went all about the Old Town.  This was maybe one of the most intense parades I have ever seen.  The  streets were filled with cucuruchos, people dressed in all purple with the large cones on their heads.  The cones are a symbol of humility and the color purple symbolizes pentinence; these people walk in the parade as an act of faith to god for all to witness.  While it took me some time to get accustomed to thousands of "KKK-like" people flooding the streets, it was not this that shocked me the most.  People also walked dressed as Jesus bearing HUGE crosses (remember - Quito's Old Town is full of hills), wrapped themselves with barbed wire, cacti, nettles and thorns, and even lashed themselves.  Some dressed as Romans and walked along side of those dressed as Jesus, whipping them repeatedly.  And, almost everyone walked in barefoot - it was a very, very hot day.  You could see their immense pain and exhaustion as the people passed.  After the processions, I went to Chiri's (the sister of Matele) house for Fanesca - the typical Ecuadorean meal of Semana Santa.  It is a soup made with 12 grains to represent the 12 apostles and fish to represent Jesus himself.  The soup is soooo delicious - maybe one of my favorite parts of Semana Santa :)

On Saturday, a friend and I took a trip to Mindo, the cloud forest about 2 hours north of Quito, to do some hiking.  Since this was not related what-so-ever to Semana Santa, and I'm waiting to get some photos from my friend, I'll save this trip for my next posting.  

Today, we celebrated "Pascua" or Easter much like my family does in the States.  Matele's family came over for a wonderful lunch of hornado, a typical Ecuadorean dish very similar to pulled-pork but so much better (Matele made this because I had mentioned that we usually have ham at home).  We even had an Easter egg hunt in our apartment.  And we finished off the day with a night-time Easter service.