Easter
Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the Full Moon on, or after, the
March Equinox - This could be anywhere from March 22 to April 25.
Determining
the Date of Easter by astronomical algorithms can prove rather complex, so in 2003
speak, this means that Easter Sunday falls on April 20th.
Looking Ahead
for Easter Sundays:
April 20th, 2003; April 11th, 2004, March 27th, 2005; April 16th, 2006; April 8th, 2007;
March 23rd, 2008; April 12th, 2009; and April 4th, 2010.
Palm
Sunday is the week before Easter Sunday, but more importanly Good Friday in 2003 falls on April 18th.
For Christian
pilgrims around the world,
Good Friday is the important day.
From Israel and Rome,
to the Americas and Asia,
it is Jesus's last journey that is re-enacted.
The Stations of the
Cross:
1.
Jesus is condemned.
2. Jesus carries his cross.
3. Jesus falls.
4. Jesus meets his mother.
5. Simon helps Jesus.
6. Veronica helps Jesus.
7. Jesus falls again.
8. Jesus consoles the women.
9. The third fall.
10. Jesus is stripped.
11. Jesus is crucified.
12. Jesus dies.
13. Jesus is taken down.
14. Jesus is buried.
Easter in
Guatemala:
Antigua is the cultural centre of Guatemala, and Easter in this colonial capital offers
the vistor a chance to see one of the most important festivals in Latin America.
This photo-story of purple pageantry was first
published in Traveller Magazine.
The most important Holy Week procession leaves
La Merced at 7 a.m., on Good Friday.
The route is lined with men and boys wearing
purple cassocks, and white headdresses, while the crowd of onlookers wait patiently behind
them.
Even more of a picture are the dyed sawdust
carpets - alfombras - of Mayan design, that the various processions pass over
during the enactment of the Stations of the Cross.
Americans from the military
base in Angeles chartered jeepneys to bring their cameras and video recording equipment to
San Fernando. The Good Friday event even attracted photographers from International wire
agencies and an Independent Electronic News Gathering team.
As I followed the proceedings with my camera,
I was also taken to be an American:
"Hey Joe, jest wourn shart,"
the local children would mimic.
The only Catholic
nation in Asia, Filipinos take their belief seriously. Youths, with covered faces and crowns
of thorns, marched bare-chested and in single-file on either side of the road. Drivers
pulled over to let them pass, and witness the self-inflicted cuts on the backs of the
flagellants.
The man to be crucified,
like Jesus, carried his cross behind two Roman soldiers on horseback. Other Centurians,
in red gowns and shiny headgear, marched alongside to keep the crowds away.
The procession stoped occasionally: Jesus
knelt down with his cross, while Mary and two other girls ran up to him, wept at
his feet, and begged his captors to free him.
Photographers speckled with
blood, from trying to get close-ups of the flagellants' backs, struggled with the Romans
and modern-day t-shirt-and-jeans security staff to get a better shot. Then the procession
would continue.
Refreshment-stalls lined the roadside, and
whole families crowded at their windows to watch the avidly focused foreigners avoid the
little children and drainage ditches, as much as the ritual itself. One man tried to take
some pictures walking backwards, and almost came to grief at the hindquarters of a horse;
children wanted their pictures taken too, and film reserves of some ran out completely.
The crowd cut across fields to
where the crucifixion would take place. Three large black crosses were set out on
top of a small mound; fenced off with barbed wire. If there was a push from the back, I
feared for those at the front; some of whom had claimed their positions four hours
earlier.
A man displayed the 5-inch sterilized nails to
the waiting crowd; the photographers saw a photo-opportunity and called for another
showing.
Mary stood on the mound
as Jesus arrived. Then his arms were strapped to the cross before one of the guards
hammered a nail into his palm.
Photographers shouted at other guards
to move out of the way so that they could focus on the man's face as he experienced the
first initial shock of the nail piercing his open hand.
Ten other men were nailed to the cross along
with Chito Sangalang. They said that they were suffering for the people's sins, and for
their own repentance - in order that we could all be right with God. George said it was
more likely for social reasons:
"Everybody in the town will know them and
speak their name, but then they are just the same. They go to church and are looking at
the women in the other row. Huh," he scoffed.
The show was over The crowd had sweated
profusely in the heat and close proximity to each other, and now sellers of cold drinks
were the target of attention.
The Pain of Faith:
Ronald Soliman's highly visual look at the Holy Week rituals in San Fernando. Each
photograph is presented on a different page with captions, and is well worth the wait to
go through them all if this article has interested you.
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