Easter was great! I enjoyed being in Antigua and I got to see a bunch of great things. We actually planned on (and did) come back on Saturday so that we would miss the "returning home" crowd. (Antigua is the place to be for holy week.) But we apparently didn't miss the crowd of people. In fact a couple of our buses were overbooked. But we sure had fun while we were there.
One of the most famous things they do in Antigua for Semana Santa (Holy Week) are the afombras (carpets). They have processions every day where statues of Christ, Mary, and some of the appostles are carried through the street. It's supposed to be a mental picture of Christ going through Jerusalem during his last week. It's interesting because they carry Him on these huge platforms (almost like floats) but they sway from side to side to make it look like He's walking. Well, back to the afombras... They make carpets out of sawdust or other natural things and the procession then walks on them. The biggest day we saw was Thursday-night/Friday morning. Christ's arrest is depicted and there are tons of afombras almost everywhere. But the interesting part was that they spend all Thursday night and Friday morning (staying up all night) making them, but then the procession walks on them by very early the next day.
I'm not sure where this tradition comes from. If I had to guess, I would say that maybe they started making more "special" carpets for Palm Sunday when Jesus is supposed to come in on His triumphantly peaceful Donkey. Then maybe they just decided that Jesus was so special that He needed carpets then entire week. But I don't know, so don't take my word for it.
On Friday afternoon they had some other things as well. At the church, they crucified Jesus. It was pretty interesting, but I don't think they would have gotten very far with this in the States. They were dressed a little funny... to say the least. Actually, remember Chris Betz from COTW? Me and him were very good friends, and we had a lot of talks about Catholic things since he is Catholic. Out of all the things we talked about, there wasn't one single thing that I was uncomfortable with or one doctrine that I couldn't agree with at the least being a possibility. Actually, I really admired many of the things that Catholics have in their doctrines or catechisms.
All that said... there in Antigua I began to feel very uncomfortable. Maybe it was just the things that I didn't understand, or maybe it wasn't the Catholic Church at all, but rather the people in it. But either way, I truly felt like there were things that were pretty far off and it made me uncomfortable seeing it. I can see why the evangelical churches down here have really pulled away from the Catholics. It's hard for me to put together all that Chris said with what I see down here. It's incongruent to say the least. The only think I can guess is that maybe the Vatican is just looking the other way. I really believe there are people down here that worship Mary or that worship some of the icons that the churches keep. I mean... they are very beautiful and they definitely could be bringing glory to God, but not if people are worshiping them instead of Him.
And all that goes very far against what Chris and I talked about a couple of summers ago. Apparently in Vatican II, all that type of stuff was frowned upon and more or less outlawed within the faith. Which makes me wonder exactly what it is that's going on here and how the Vatican is getting around having to deal with it head on.
But either way, the afombras make for very beautiful (if temporary) carpets and pieces of artwork.
6 comments:
You've been able to experience and gain insight into some other customs and traditions. Should I say it? "That reminds me of a song..." Your pictures are NG quality! Very professional looking. Thank you for sharing the pictures and your thoughts.
I think I saw that black hanging Jesus when I was there...
Thanks Dad.
Yeah Gwyn... disturbing wasn't it?
No, not really....they explained it to us. If you think about it every Western European depction of Jesus has him being caucasian (I can't spell, forgive me), but he wasn't. Different cultures depict Jesus differently in art. The skin tone of the residents of Central/South Ameria is VERY dark, therefore, when depicting Jesus, it makes sense for them to make him dark skinned. In Africa, I'm sure he's depicted as black. Like the Bible says--Jesus because all things to all men...and be a Jew to the Jew, a Gentile to a Gentile, a ____ to a ____. It's Biblical...sorta.
You know that is basically what Catholics do. When I lived in Portugal, one of my neighbors was a very religious Catholic and when we went to visit one of the old ancient churches there on the island that had been there (well I already said ancient, so you get my drift...it was old) there were all these statues of saints of course Mary. I asked Susanna why people pray to the saints, and she looked at me in awe...like I didn't KNOW! She said, well there are just too many people with too many complaints and people look to the saints for their answers and give their petition and praise to them when the saints "help them" because God has...and I quote her words exactly..."much more important things to focus on."
So, there you have. Plus, I was once told that the Catholics have a face of some pagan God hidden in their churches so that just in case they were wrong about Christ, they can go back and ask the pagan god for forgiveness and to accept them back. Now, if that's really true or not, I don't know.
I'm glad that your Semana Santa was fun and educational.
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