Holy Week in Arequipa

As a former viceroyalty of Spain, Peru celebrates the week before Easter - Semana Santa, or Holy Week - with rites and processions drawing large crowds. Though we didn’t see Arequipa’s most famous Semana Santa events (more on that later), we did get a sampling of the city’s traditions during this special time of year.

On the Friday evening before Palm Sunday (the start of Holy Week), we saw a live Stations of the Cross in the Plaza de Armas. The huge plaza was packed solid with people! The fourteen stations had been set up around the perimeter, with costumed actors posing in the spotlights. Dozens of priests led the way, walking to the stations one by one. At each station, the actors would play out a scene from the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, and then the crowd joined in reciting the prayers.

On the evening of Palm Sunday, we saw part of a procession at Plaza de Armas. Accompanied by music from brass bands, life-sized statues on ornate wooden platforms processed slowly along the street. Each platform was carried on the shoulders of around 20 men, and encircled by women holding a rope to keep spectators at a safe distance. The platforms were very heavy; one was set down in front of us so the carriers could change shifts. The crowd in the plaza was not as large as the one at the Stations of the Cross, but the spectators were probably spread out along the procession route.

There were two more Semana Santa events I was curious about - the Good Friday procession and the Burning of Judas. But after more than two years of full-time nomad living and eating with no issues, I contracted gastroenteritis. Recovery was slow and kept me home for several days, which cramped my style (pun intended). Perhaps in the future, we’ll see these events in Spain or another of its former viceroyalties.