Semana Santa!

Semana Santa translates to Holy Week and it’s made up of Holy Thursday (Jueves Santo), Good Friday (Viernes Santo), ending with Easter Sunday (Domingo Gloria). The Catholic customs here were so beautiful as they celebrated the real meaning of those days. It made me feel, as a Catholic, almost a bit ashamed about the strange customs I have for Easter. I was asked frequently if I celebrate the same way in “my land”. At first I explained my Easter customs. After strange, perplexed looks, I just stopped explaining and would just say “no, we don’t celebrate like this”. Here in Chocta, they truly recognized the pain and suffering of Jesus on Thursday and Friday. Did nothing (no work, cleaning, nada) on Saturday when Jesus was in the grave. And then rejoiced with dancing, drinking, and celebrations when he rose on Sunday. At home we paint eggs, and eat lots of chocolate from a magic bunny. Don’t get me wrong, that’s all good and fun, but as a Catholic, myself, it truly made me think.

Mashing chickpea beans

so much food!

So what were these customs like? Let’s start with Thursday. My host brother, really my host family, was “majordomo” of the day. I’m not sure the exact translation, but it means they’re the ones who host the celebrations of the day. So starting a week earlier we began preparing. We had friends come over and help cook. One night at like 8pm a lady came over to make chicha (that sweet corn alcoholic beverage I mentioned before) and they stayed up all night taking turns sleeping and maintaining the fire to keep the drink boiling. I spent over an hour cranking a “molino” which is like a fine grater that turns whatever you want to grind, into a fine powder. You can use it to make corn tortillas and I really want to try to make peanut butter with it one day (stay tuned for how that turns out). In this case it was dried banana, which, with a little water and a TON of sugar would become masamora, a dark, yummy, sweet, liquid dessert. I guess it was the consistency of a thin pudding that you eat with a spoon. On the day of the event I was awoken by my nieces and nephews and a house full of people doing the final prepping and cleaning. It really felt like a holiday morning, which I wasn’t expecting as Christmas was so lame and uneventful. I got up and got dressed and was served a cup of chicha right away at 7am. From then on, the drinking did not stop until Sunday. (Luckily Chicha isn’t strong and I was at a comfortable buzz the whole weekend, never with a hangover). People were hanging out until 11ish when we went to church. After, we all came back to the house and had lunch. I think I explained the standard 5 plate meals of parties here, but as a refresher, the host serves 5 courses, way more than any mortal human could possibly consume (most people just eat the first), but that’s the way it is. Everyone goes home with their bags full of the plates they didn’t eat. Then we just hung out and drank chicha and traigo (much stronger, I didn’t indulge in that as much). I was relaxing in my room with some kiddos and without realizing it the sun had gone down and all of a sudden the house was packed with people! I’m talking every room, people sitting in the hallways, standing outside, it was crazy how many people came. We served a snack of ground up chickpea type beans mixed with garlic and salt with potatoes. Really tasty! Then the masamora, yum! Then at 10pm we went to church again. After the liturgy, we called it a night and I slept like a baby from all the socializing.

On our way up to the church

The altar for holy thursday

The altar for Friday and Saturday

Day 2: Friday. I woke up, once again to some family members and some more chicha. Followed by more church. The altar in the church was decorated in black with a black drape and dark purple flowers instead of the usual colorful array. After that, we hung out at my host brother’s house napping and watching Pasion de Cristo (The Passion of Christ) all day. Around 5 we went to church again. By that time I was feeling tired of sitting through liturgies. But actually the liturgy finished with a really beautiful ceremony. We sang beautiful, but sad sounding songs as we took the crucified Jesus off of the cross and put him in his coffin. Then we sat around for a while singing more sad songs to  “accompany the lord in his death.” Like a legit funeral. Then we called it a night.

Day 3: Saturday day was uneventful as we weren’t supposed to play, work, clean, dance, or anything because Jesus was dead. We did drink chicha though! I washed my poncho cause a dog had peed on it and I wanted to wear it that night and there was lots of strong sun so I knew it’d dry in time. I visited some friends. I bathed. I watched Elder, my host brother, make his sheep costume (he had a role to play later that night, keep reading!). We all napped a lot. Then at 11pm I was awoken from a nice sleep by Naidita, my 12 year old host niece. It was so cold out and I was so warm in beg plus I felt like I was coming down with something. But this was the night we’ve been waiting for! Jesus is going to rise from the dead! So I pulled myself out of bed and we walked to the church where a surprising amount of people showed up for a midnight service! I’d never seen the church more full! People I’d never seen in church before were there, I didn’t know there were this many Catholics here in Chocta! We started by standing out front of the doors. The majordomos of this day held candelabras and everyone else had our own lit candles. Then we sang as we walked into the church- it was really pretty! We sat in the dark lit by our candles through the liturgy. Then, near the end, a band started playing and the “animals” came in! So 5 or 6 guys from the community were chosen to portray animals: a bear, dear, sheep, etc. and a hunter. They danced into the church up to the altar as the hunter fought them. I’m not really sure why… That’s still as unclear as why we have an Easter bunny in the US.  But nonetheless, it was a hoot! Everyone was laughing. 

Then the animals left, we finished the liturgy, and went outside to see the animals putting on a performance of more dancing and fighting amongst themselves.  we all followed the dancing animals to the majordomo’s house. They danced some more and the band played outside. Then we all went inside to dance ourselves. The animals took off their costumes to reveal tipsy, sweaty men! The live band was really excellent and I had a great time dancing and getting sweaty myself! We called it a night well after 4 in the morning, knowing we all had to be at church at 9 that morning!

Day 4:9am came far too soon. By then, the cold that I had felt coming on was full throttle! I took some meds and drank my Emergen-C packets and lots of water. I felt a groggy but okay as we headed over to the church to the sound of that same band playing. There we found Elder, (my host brother) who had not come home that night, still tipsy and hanging out with the other animals. I don’t think they had slept at all… At the end of the liturgy, we all walked out to and around the plaza following the dancing animals and the band. A ton of people had gathered in the plaza to watch. Then we hung out as the animals (followed by a mob of children) ran off to “rob the stores.” I thought I heard them wrong, but later found out the animals had, indeed, left to go steal fruits and veggies from around town to bring to the majordomo’s house! As we were sitting down for lunch, in ran the animals with their arms full of melons, cucumbers, celery, you name it! It was hilarious. Lunch was yummy, but of course way to much food with way too much chicha and traigo. They served the chicha in soup bowls and offered shots of traigo all throughout lunch. Therefore, as was desired, we were all ready and willing to dance by the time lunch was over. As they say, “A votar vergüenza!” literally, “To get rid of embarrassment!”. So we danced. And we laughed. And had a really really really good time. The band, as I said, was awesome and I really love dancing Huayno, Cumbia, and Marinera, which I had just learned the night before! But by 3 or 4 in the afternoon I was so done. With thelack of sleep, abundance of dancing and socializing, plus my body fighting a cold, it was no surprise that I laid down to sleep at 5pm and hardly budged until 8am the next morning.

Sorry for the excruciating long post. If you were able to get through it, thank you for your attention! I hope you enjoyed reading about these different customs as much as I enjoyed experiencing them!