Semana Santa – Easter in Colombia

Today it’s Easter Sunday and now in the afternoon I can say, that I went to all important services in the past week.

Colombia is one of the most catholic countries in the world, anyhow Latinos understand the catholic religion a bit different than how I knew it from Germany. Cheerful songs, people clapping and the all known kneeing down are part of every mess. And then there is Easter or here the so called “Holy week”, Semana Santa. This is the week of Jesus’ Passion, his dead at the cross and his resurrection on the third day is celebrated in this week.

Before the Holy Week there are 40 days of Lent (the fasting period) which is initiated by the Miercoles de Cinisa (Ash Wednesday) on which you prepare yourself for the holy week, in behaviour and thoughts, preparing yourself for Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. In those 40 days the pastor will preach for example about how to improve your behaviour with family friends and in general in society to give more love and live how Jesus taught us.

Holy Thursday

As I know it from German traditions the Holy Thursday we started the most important holiday for Catholics – Semana Santa. The last supper is celebrated:

Luke 22: 19-20

¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

²⁰ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

In the Catholic Church, during the Holy Communion Jesus is believed to be really present in the “oblea” and the wine. On this photo you can see the “Santisimo” I which Jesus is present in form of the “bread” and wine. Therefore on the Holy Thursday the Santisimo is very nicely decorated and put into the church for one whole day so people can pray to Jesus being present.

Good Friday

The next day will be the day of Jesus’ Crucifixion of Jesus. In the “Vía Cruicis” is a tradition in which all XIV moments and sufferings Jesus’ will be remembered in a 2 hour walk in which all 14 moments are represented by “stations” in which the youth group of our church replayed the steps life. It was a very impressive and wonderful experience. It felt like half of the neighbourhood was in the group in the end of the walk. Singing and partly suffering people relived the suffering of Christ.

In the service of this day was about the seven words of god before Jesus’ death as well as the bible part of Jesus’ Crucifixion. During the mess the 7 words are read by different people. One of the last girls became very emotional and cried. For religious people here it is a very emotional week including sadness, suffering but also joy and happiness for the resurrection of Christ.

After Jesus Death at the cross he was carried to the “sepulcro” (=tomb) where he was buried. Also this is represented in the church for people to pray for Jesus and Maria in her hardest time. Many people pray the “Rosario” (=rosary):

Dios te salve, María, llena eres de gracia, el Seńor es contigo.

Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres, y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre, Jesús.

Santa María, Madre de Dios,

ruega por nosotros, pecadores,

ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte.

Amén

All those days the church was open as long as possible from 7 a.m. to 21 p.m. Due to our church being a very young one, still located in a mall which has these opening times. I went to pray on different times during this week and the church was almost always pretty full. Also all the services are very very full – a bit comparable to the difference of normal messes in Germany to a Christmas mess. I am super in love with all the decoration and impressed of how this small church put so much effort and love into this beautiful and important celebration.

Bright Saturday

Saturday is definitely the happiest of all the celebrations. In the morning there is a mass to accompany the virgin Maria in her sadness. And at night, just as common in Germany there is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

In the beginning of the big (very big) mass the Easter Fire is blessed and passed on by everyone. A nice tradition is that the father is singing for about 20 minutes the most important parts of the bible. In addition our father sings very beautiful. After that the mess consists of a lot of singing, parts of the bible of different important events like the story of the creation of the world, Noah and Abraham. Between the different Bible parts the choir, in which also Jorge’s mom and sister sing beautifully. Funnily they even sung some songs I know from the church in Germany.

At some point it was time for Jesus to resurrect from the dead, which is symbolized by a Jesus figured put in white and one red sheet. Also the candles and water, people brought in all kinds of bottles was blessed by the father. Blessed means to make something holy, and holy water can be used to bless people or things and connect them with God. I know that blessings have a way higher meaning but it would be too excessive to explain it in all detail. I hope you can forgive me for that. If you would like to share your opinion on it, feel free to share it in the comments (of course in a polite and friendly way).

Yo soy la luz del mund - I am the light of the world

People waiting for their water to be blessed

The services those three days (Friday to Saturday) are actually seen as one, as only on Saturday night the really end of the mass is celebrated with the blessing of the father for the community.

Once home we ate something in the family (well after almost 3hours of service plus the preparation time for Jorge’s parents) and had a nice moment together.

Living the holy week in such a religious place, a whole new experience I fully enjoyed and from which I´ve learned a lot.

Muchos Besos,

Leonie