XelaDailyPhoto

Friday morning’s alfombra preparations outside of San Nicholas, in front of Parque Benito Juarez.

The Semana Santa processions have begun, as captured by this fabulous photo taken by guest contributor Arturo Godoy.

It’s procession time again, with the two big procession seasons being Independence Day and the entire month of Semana Santa. Things to love about the processions: marching bands, costumes and the children. Things “not” to love about the processions: marching bands, too much incense and traffic jams.

Just when you thought that Christmas was over, one last photo captures the spirit beautifully. This photo by Jose Moreno was taken at the end of one of the very last Christmas posadas and shows a bit of the brilliant colors and heritage of celebrations in this part of the world.

The Christmas Parade was last night and although I was working still, I managed to sneak outside for a few shots. The parade started in Parque Central and continued all the way to the Minerva Terminal area. I can’t imagine how cold and tired some of the marchers must have been by the end of the night! There was Christmas music and Santa Claus, the police were handing out candy to the children and there were too many marching bands to count. The Christmas season is officially upon Xela!

In May and June there were random parades near Calvario for what seemed to be the local firefighters. There is always dancing and sometimes there are small stalls of vendors selling food. I am not sure why there is a Mario and Luigi leading this particular parade…perhaps this is where I ask Cristina for here knowledge on these tiny little street parades…

It’s officially Independence time and with that comes the parades! On Tuesday there were the desfilas for the children; the streets were lined with proud parents and cameras were snapping wildly as the children of Xela marched through the centro historico.

A marching band parade appearing in any park in Guatemala shows the public the result of months of preparation for Independence Day. Only now, it is a variation of what used to be solely military marches before the peace agreements were official.

The formation and synchronicity of the movements along with the steady beat of the drums, gives the spectator a reason to use one of their favorite gadgets, the cellphone camera or video recorder.

Post by Guest Contributor Sergio Dominguez

After a week of Processions I am honestly all Processioned out. So this Easter Morning I went to the Cathedral and sat during Mass, watching and listening. It being Easter Sunday the church was pack and people sat outside where I found this young girl reading the bible while the Priest gave a sermon about Easter and it’s meaning.

Even with rain falling across Xela, the processions marched on.

As incense burns around the Processional floats Tuesday night, crowds gathered in Quetzaltenago’s central park to observe the Procession of Jesus De La Paciencia. The procession is one of many that will take place during Semana Santa

I was able to catch the end of a Procession as they brought the Saint Statues of Jesus and Mary back into the Cathedral Monday night. I almost got locked in the gates as I was taking photos.

A group of “roman centurions” gets ready for a procession for the Virgen de Fatima at Parque Bolivar Sunday afternoon.

Sunday was the first procession of the Lent season here in Xela. AND WOW! what a procession it ran from 4 pm to 8pm. Having all those different brotherhoods take turns walking with the Anda of Jesus was pretty amazing to watch.