SEMANA SANTA....HOLY WEEK

Beautiful Catholic Church in
Tegucigalpa Centro

This year we were able to experience Semana Santa or Holy Week. This is the week before Easter which includes everything from Palm Sunday through Easter. It was the first time that we were able to view this from a Catholic based country. This is a very holy week for them....and we were warned that things begin to shut down on Wednesday at noon. Good Friday is the main event because it is the day that Christ died on the cross.

The road by our apartment
ALWAYS busy with traffic

The street next to the mission office
There are usually cars everywhere and vendors all over the street

It was amazing to see how the country literally shuts down. Beginning on Wednesday stores closed and did not open again until Saturday or Monday. Most of the people who could in Tegucigalpa left the city and went to the beach or to visit other family members. Thursday and Friday things were at a standstill....we even had to lift a chain to get into the parking lot for our Church offices.

Elder and Hermana Adams and Los Tomkinsons

The murals went for about 8 city blocks
They were spectacular!!

Friday we went with Elder and Hermana Adams from the Tegucigalpa mission to see the sawdust displays. These are murals that are made of sawdust that depict the life of Christ. They have beautiful scenes from His life, scriptures and beautiful flower displays all made out of sawdust. Many of the cities in Honduras do these. They line a street near the Catholic Church with them. After services in the Church, the people take the cross out in the street and then walk through the sawdust displays in procession down the street depicting Christ carrying His cross through the streets.

Getting ready for the cross reenactment
It is an honor to be involved in this

The mural done by the Institute

As we looked at the displays we stopped at one that was so familiar to us. It was the scene depicting Christ ordaining His Apostles. After a minute, we realized that it was the mural that the kids from the Institute did for the event. It was amazing. We had a great day at the event.

It was a different way to celebrate Easter....we are used to having the traditional day of celebration on Sunday. But when we went to Church on Sunday we felt the spirit of the resurrection and the celebration of Eternal Life.