When They Say Christmas is Magical

Just into the second week after Easter our lives are settling back into their routines.  Holy Week is the biggest celebration of the entire year in Nicaragua.  How people celebrate differs, for some it’s a week at the beach and for others it’s the high holiday of the church year, but one way or the other, half the country is on vacation since the Friday before.  There are special rituals, parades, fireworks, full churches, and huge parties all week.  The only thing I could compare it to in the US would be the Christmas season.  And in that respect, it has been a gift to experience in a new place that feeling people are trying to get at when they say Christmas is magical.   

Our family has started to build its own set of rituals, one of which is going to visit the sawdust carpets on Good Friday.  Each year in the Sutiava neighborhood on the night of Good Friday there is a big procession.  In the afternoon artists from the neighborhood start creating murals of colored sawdust in the procession route.  They usually depict biblical scenes or some famous site in León.  Crowds start showing up mid-afternoon to come and see the artists working and by the evening the streets are packed in anticipation of the procession, which will pass through the carpets.  The centerpiece of the procession is a funeral bed carrying Jesus, with his weeping mother following behind.  The atmosphere is not quite like anything I’ve experienced before.  The crowds make the whole event feel quite festive, but the symbolism of the carefully created carpets, like the palms, laid down to honor the sacrificed Christ is solemn, sad and beautiful. 

If you've never experienced Holy Week in Latin America, we'd love to share it with you.  It's a time made for visiting with family and friend, and our door's open.