Picking up our Holy Week story, please note that I didn't take photos during the events described as it didn't feel appropriate. You'll have to use your imagination!
On Palm Sunday, I was surprised to find out that we were celebrating “Domingo de los Ramos”, or Sunday of the Branches, not palms. So instead of getting palms at the entrance to church, we received olive tree branches. This makes sense for Tacna because olives are a huge crop—all the olive oil we buy is local and fantastic—but it was different, and sadly, you cannot make crosses with olive branches like you can with palms. In the Gospel we heard, the people on the way laid branches of no specific type in the road before Jesus passed. I couldn’t remember if it actually says ‘palms’ in the readings we hear in English, so I checked in our Bible, which is the egalitarian translation and thus not official, but it says ‘branches’ too. It also says that Jesus was passing near the Mount of Olives on the approach to Jerusalem, so maybe olive branches actually make more sense. Other than that, mass for Domingo de los Ramos was consistent with your regular Palm/Branch Sunday mass.
On Palm Sunday, I was surprised to find out that we were celebrating “Domingo de los Ramos”, or Sunday of the Branches, not palms. So instead of getting palms at the entrance to church, we received olive tree branches. This makes sense for Tacna because olives are a huge crop—all the olive oil we buy is local and fantastic—but it was different, and sadly, you cannot make crosses with olive branches like you can with palms. In the Gospel we heard, the people on the way laid branches of no specific type in the road before Jesus passed. I couldn’t remember if it actually says ‘palms’ in the readings we hear in English, so I checked in our Bible, which is the egalitarian translation and thus not official, but it says ‘branches’ too. It also says that Jesus was passing near the Mount of Olives on the approach to Jerusalem, so maybe olive branches actually make more sense. Other than that, mass for Domingo de los Ramos was consistent with your regular Palm/Branch Sunday mass.
In the rest of Holy Week, there were events Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. We missed Holy Thursday because we were traveling, but we know it included an overnight vigil from 6 pm to 6 am. It doesn’t seem like people necessarily stayed for the whole time, but it sounds intense! We spent the night visiting JP’s old host family in Ilo instead…
On Viernes Santo (Good Friday), there was a Via Cruz, which is basically a Stations of the Cross writ large. In this case, the stations were located at people’s homes throughout Habitat and the surrounding area, and there was a huge wooden cross—probably 9 feet tall and six feet wide—that we literally carried from station to station. In classic Peruvian fashion, when we met outside the chapel at 3 pm, there were maybe 20 people in the group, and I was surprised because JP had told me that Good Friday was a bigger event than Easter Sunday here. As the first three volunteers picked up the cross (it was big!) and we headed to the first house, a few more people joined us, and the trend continued for the first half of the stations. By the halfway point, there were probably more than a hundred people there. At each house, the family had made a small altar out front with the name of the station (i.e. “Jesus falls for the first time,” “Simon carries the cross,” etc.), some religious images and statues, and usually candles and the family bible. When we reached each station, we were lead in prayer and song and then each family who ‘hosted’ a station offered their own prayer, which was a nice touch. As we walked from station to station, the group alternated singing “Como hermanos, caminamos juntos, al encuentro de Jesus” (As brothers and sisters, we walk together, to the encounter with Jesus) or praying the rosary, but there were side conversations so it wasn’t completely solemn. Plus, many people brought their elementary school-aged children, so there were occasional incidents of small children chasing each other through the group gathered at the station. It was impressive to see how many people gathered to basically spend the afternoon at the Via Cruz and to watch our neighbors take turns stepping forward to carry the cross, in teams of three, from station to station. To go through all fourteen stations, though, took a solid two hours in the afternoon sun. After the Via Cruz, we all gathered in the chapel for a Good Friday communion service.
The emphasis on Good Friday was really the most significant difference I saw from our Easter observances in the states. We attended Easter Vigil mass at 7:30 on Saturday night. It started like all the other such masses I had been to, outside with the blessing of the candle and then the flame being passed to everyone in attendance. We all processed in carefully with our candles, but the lights were turned on after we got inside. (Technically they tried to turn on the lights, but they blinked and went out so JP had to go over to our house to reset the fuse breaker, which is in the apartment instead of in the chapel.) At our church in Tempe, they do the first several readings in the dark, until the lights come in with the “Gloria” and the gospel, but here they stuck to the basics. In addition, the Vigil mass was significantly shorter because they only had 3 old testament readings, two new testaments and the gospel, in comparison to the extended-version Vigil mass that I think has nine or ten readings total. Plus, they didn’t have RCIA baptisms and confirmations at our mass, so that cut down on our time too. I always love Easter Vigil mass but JP finds it interminable so this was a nice compromise.
Finally, just for extra credit, we also went to Easter Sunday morning mass, which was cheerful but not as heavily attended as the Good Friday events, and then we got to celebrate all our holy activities by having Easter brunch with the Jesuit volunteers and some Peruvian friends!
And, as a bonus for reading such a long post without pictures, a photo of one of our fabulous sunsets, as seen from our front door:
And, as a bonus for reading such a long post without pictures, a photo of one of our fabulous sunsets, as seen from our front door:
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