Holy Week

The week preceding Easter, known as Holy Week, is perhaps the most intensely dramatic and solemn time of the Mexican liturgical calendar. During this week of ritual and theater, the syncretism of pre-Hispanic religious rites and sixteenth-century Catholicism is most salient. The image of the crucified Christ introduced by Spanish friars was accepted by the Indians, for in it they found a reflection of their own sacrificial and religious practices. discovering that teaching through pantomime and song was helpful in furthering their evangelization efforts, the Spaniards allowed the Indians to act out Christian history. For centuries, then, in towns throughout Mexico, villagers dressed as characters from the passion and death of Christ have engaged in a form of religious theater.

Today, wearing colorful, handmade costumes, they reverently re-enact the dramatic events leading to Christ's death on the cross. Beginning on Palm Sunday, the devoted carry elaborately woven palm decorations through streets strewn with palm leaves, marking Christ's entry into Jerusalem. On Maundy Thursday, the Last Supper, as well as the betrayal and arrest of Christ, are re-created. Events evoking Christ's carrying of his cross to Golgotha, his bloody persecution during this journey, and his ultimate crucifixion are played out in loving detail in many towns on Good Friday. Also on this day, penitentes, pious individuals wearing crowns of thorns or executioner's black hoods, walk barefoot through the cobblestone streets. some drag bare, unhewn crosses on their backs, while others flagellate themselves with disciplinas, or barbed whips, practicing their physical, and sometimes injurious, form of penance. Following the Mass of Glory on Holy Saturday, papier-mache figures representing Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, are strung with fireworks, hung in public places and ceremoniously exploded, bringing the somber week to a joyous end. Solemnity is resumed on Easter Sunday, when Mexicans attend Mass to quietly celebrate Christ's Resurrection.

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