This is Holy Week in Cuenca. As you would expect, Ecuador is a predominantly Catholic nation. Therefore, Holy Week is very important to them. For some reason each of the past three years has found me out of the city during Easter weekend. Such is not the case this year. As a result, I have been able to take in a couple of the church related activities.
Yesterday was “Good Friday” and there were two events that I attended. The first was a procession that left the Santo Domingo church @10:00 AM and wound around much of the central city. The procession focused on the twelve stations of the cross. Each of the “stations” was represented by very large statues that were carried on platforms by anywhere from 10-15 people. I think that each of the “stations” was carried by members of a different church and it was followed by members of the parish. The procession was led by a small drum corp that set the pace by beating out a very slow funeral dirge. I can’t imagine what it would be like to carry the platforms for many blocks at a slow pace on what was a very warm day, and wondered if there were “relief teams” who stepped in to give the people a break. It was quite impressive.
Last night several of us went to a dramatic reenactment of Holy Week up through Christ’s ascension. The “play” was held outdoors in front of one of the churches, and was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM. We arrived at 7:30 to find the cast and crew busy setting up the scenery. Chairs were not brought out until shortly before 8:00. In true Ecuadorian fashion, the performance did not start on time–in fact it was late even by their standards. Finally, the performance started at 8:45 and lasted another 2.5 hours. The actors/actress put their hearts and souls into the performance. It certainly wasn’t their fault that the sound system did not always work. Occasionally they would break out into song (Mary Magdalene had a beautiful voice!) or dance ( a combination of ballet and what I would call “modern dance”). The gentleman who was playing the part of Jesus had extensive lines and was very passionate in their delivery.
The play culminated with Christ’s ascension. Upon his death, the cast had carried him into the church (The front doors had been made to look like a rock wall to simulate a cave.). After a short time the doors reopened and out came Christ standing on a fork lift. Once the forklift had exited the building he signaled the driver, and he was “raised from the dead.” After a bit he offered another signal and he “came back to earth.” It was difficult to not laugh at the “hokeyness” of the whole thing. At least the “gringos” weren’t the only ones laughing!
One thing I did notice was that a majority of the businesses were closed on Good Friday. Everything seems to be open today, and the city is quite lively. I’m told that the same (many of the restaurants/businesses being open) will be true for tomorrow: Easter Sunday. I know there is a performance of the Passion Play scheduled for Parque Calderon tomorrow afternoon. After last night, I may have all of the “culture” that I can take for one weekend.
