Known as Semana Santa or Semana Mayor, the celebration has become a cultural staple—almost bigger than Christmas—in Guatemala
From the heart of the dense capital city to remote Indigenous towns in the rural highlands, people flock to the streets, and the country is splashed with a medley of colors: plazas are adorned with flowers and intricate display; women and men draped in bright Mayan textiles hoist heavy wooden caskets to represent the death of Jesus Christ in the Catholic tradition of commemorating his death; and artwork dots the streets as communities gather to eat and take a rare moment to rest.
It’s also a holiday when people from different social classes and cultural traditions can stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a gathering that is taking on greater meaning this year following a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As an acknowledgement of the pandemic, costumes now include face masks.
Donning formal attire, Holy Week observers watch the procession known as La Reseña. The annual public celebration returned to Guatemala after a two-year suspension due to the pandemic.“You just see the look on their faces and see that nothing else matters that week or that moment,” Martinez says. “The people are what make the images beautiful because they’re so dedicated to this."
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