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
