Semana Santa (3/31/2002)

Semana Santa, or “Holy Week” in Honduras, is much different than we are accustomed to in North America for the week before Easter.

Semana Santa in Honduras, in one way, is like our Christmas or Thanksgiving. It is the time of year for family to be “home for the holidays” and to travel “over the rivers and through the rain forest”. Hondurans from around the country and the US return home in droves. Although the whole week is festive, Thursday and Friday are national holidays, creating a 4-day weekend. The peak of the festivities occurs on “Good Friday”.

Unlike our Christmas, Semana Santa occurs during a hot time of year, so rather than celebrating in warm cozy homes, the beach becomes “the place to be”, adding a 4 th of July -like quality to the holiday. Preparations for the celebration actually begin early in the week. Celebrants cut palm branches and construct crude shelters on the beach to provide shade. More elaborate structures are built by vendors who will sell food and alcohol on the beach.

On Thursday, the pilgrimage begins in earnest as cars and buses packed with skimpily clad passengers and coolers of food and beverage clog the roads to beaches and swimming holes in the rivers. Vendors along the way sell plastic dolphins, inner tubes and other flotation devices.

Even our usually quite little town of Balfate becomes a center of celebration. Parked cars and buses clog the streets. Roulette tables and other forms of gaming are set up through town. A dozen or so vendors blare their music from their temporary businesses on the beach. By evening, the dance hall is warming up for the youth, and the drunks are staggering in the streets.

Friday is more of the same, but with even more people. The public buses don’t run, but many are hired out for special charter runs to the beach.

While little at the beach reminds one of the underlying religious theme of the week, in the city remain some devout observers. The catholic churches sponsor “processions”, religious parades, complete with floats and drama acting out the “Passion of Christ” and other religious scenes. These can be viewed on local television, much like our Thanksgiving or Christmas parades.

By Saturday afternoon, things start to slow down, and the crowd begins to thin out. Sunday morning, the focus of our Easter celebration in the US, is a time of peace in Balfate as the revelers sleep off the night before. By late morning, there is some activity on the beach. By late afternoon, the abandoned remains of palm structures and several days trash litter a nearly uninhabited beach. Our town returns to its usual quiet state, until next Semana Santa.