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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2017)
EAST'40OREGON marketplace Place classified ads online at www.eastoregonmarketplace.com or call 1-800-962-2819 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. After hours, leave a voicemail and we’ll confirm your ad the next business day. Email us at classifieds@ east oregonian.com or fax: 541-278-2680 East Oregonian Deadline is 3 p.m. the day before publication 211 S.E. Byers Ave. 333 E. Main St. We accept: Pendleton, OR 97801 Hermiston, OR 97838 See www.eastoregonmarketplace.com for classified ads from all over Eastern Oregon EAST OREGONIAN • HERMISTON HERALD • BLUE MOUNTAIN EAGLE • WALLOWA COUNTY CHIEFTAIN Tuesday March 21, 2017 Postal Customer Local Standard Pre-Sort Permit #73 U.S. Postage Paid Pendleton, OR 97801 Antigua Guatemala rolls out the flower carpet for Easter By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO -Associated Press The rising sun hasn't lit up the cobblestone streets of this colonial city yet, but people of all ages are busy covering them with brightly colored sawdust mosaics and carpets made of flowers and fruits. Many have worked overnight on these elaborate masterpieces that will disappear in a couple of minutes under the feet of dozens of men carrying in procession a 3-ton religious float. Whether shouldering massive sacred images or decorating the streets where they will pass, the people of Antigua Guatemala create one of the world's most dazzling and moving displays of Easter devotion. That makes early spring an ideal time to visit this volcano- ringed city that looks remarkably as it did 500 years ago when it was the capital of Spain's Central American empire. Easter festivities kick off the fifth Sunday of Lent - April 2 this year - with the first procession revering Jesus's passion. A group of 90 "cucuruchos," as the purple-robed and hooded volunteers are called, shoulders a block-long wooden float at the parish of San Bartolome Becerra at 6 a.m. Every 100 meters (yards) on the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) route, a new group will relieve the sweating, swaying men, until the antique sculpture of Jesus falling under the weight of the cross has made its way through the city center. There are approximately 9,000 carriers. Some are from Antigua but they also come from across Central America and even from the United States, with Guatemalans living elsewhere coming home for the celebration. It will be 1 a.m. the next day before the last group deposits the float back at San Bartolome, said Hiram Salazar, spokesman for Hermandad de Jesus Nazareno de la Caida, the Catholic confraternity in charge of this procession first recorded in 1902. As the float inches its way on top of the first green, yellow and red carpet, a hush comes over the crowd squeezed against whitewashed houses to let the cucuruchos walk through. Incense mixes with the fragrance of crushed tropical flowers and candlewax wafting from small chapels. By Easter Sunday, these scenes are repeated as a dozen other processions carry sacred images past Antigua's crimson and gold single-story homes, arcaded palaces, tree-lined plazas, and monumental churches and convents like the canary yellow, sculpture-filled La Merced. In the past few years, hundreds of thousands of visitors descended on Antigua for Easter festivities. But if you go early enough in the morning, the streets still belong to two teenagers perched on a wooden plank patting down violet sawdust or a man fashioning a large cross of red rose petals among a giant square of white calla lilies and pink snapdragon blossoms. ___ If You Go... ANTIGUA: http://visitguatemala.com/es/desc ubre/guatemala BUY IT! SELL IT! FIND IT! GETTING THERE: Guatemala City's international airport is less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. Stay in one of Antigua's colonial inns (like Hotel Casa del Parque) and explore the town on foot. Reservations are essential for Holy Week. PROCESSIONS: Most happen during Holy Week (for 2017, April 9-16). Local newspapers publish detailed guides. East Oregonian Classified 1-800-962-2819 Did D id You Y ou o Kn Know n ? • Why W h y is Uma Umatilla tilla C County’s oun t y ’ s Drug C Court our t program p og r pr ending? districts substantial • What Wh a t school distr r ic ts are ar e looking look ing at a t su bsta cuts in their budg gets? budgets? o w much will S Shearer’s hear er ’ s F Foods oods in Her m o mist • H How Hermiston pa pr oper t y tax t this y year? ear? pay y in property w can y you ou lear r n to t o be a storm st or m spotter spott t er for f o the • Ho How learn W ea ther S Service? er vic e? ? Weather ANTIGUA Guatemala (AP) GUATEMALA, Try us s f for or ks free! fr ee! two weeks c on v enien t Call today for convenient eliv er y home delivery 1-800-522-0255 2-0255 Subcr ibe and read r ead e all about it in the th he EO! EO Subcribe SEE WEEKLY ADVERTISING CIRCULARS INSIDE