holy week

This week is always one I look forward to. Now that I live in Honduras, it is fun to enjoy the national "spring break," but aside from that, I always anticipate Easter week because I relish the traditions. There is something reassuring about traditions, and I have come to value them even more now that I am living in a culture with traditions very different from my up-bringing.

One thing that I find frustrating is that the Protestant churches in Honduras don't seem to do much in the way of holy week traditions. In Latin America as a whole, the catholic church dominates local traditions, with sawdust carpets, processions at all hours, mass, etc. From what I observe, the evangelical churches so deeply fear being anything close to catholic, they turn 180 degrees and don't do much to commemorate Easter. It makes me sad because what more should the church be celebrating if not the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Even a church skit, for example, will focus all its energy on the suffering and and death of Christ but barely touch upon His return from the dead. How sad when we should celebrate that we are people of the Resurrection!

But I digress...so trying to enjoy as many traditions as possible, I went to check out the sawdust carpets here in Santa Rosa. It is a labor-intensive process, followed by a long processional with stops at each of the stations of the cross. I must admit, it is too long to make it through all the stations, but I did catch the beginning, and enjoyed reflecting on the different symbols of Easter as we walked along the 10 blocks of artistic celebration of Holy week in Santa Rosa. Enjoy!

one of the stations where the processional will stop 

the start of the procession. apparently these people carry the crosses, Jesus figures, etc.
for the entire procession, without relief.