Semana Santa in Granada, Nicaragua

I wanted to show a map of Central America in my first post but couldn't get it to work, but now it does. As you can see Nicaragua is almost in the middle and is the largest country in the region. It is also the poorest.

We are on the Pacific Side of the country near Lake Nicaragua 

which is quite large at over 8000 square kms. Our plan is to spend two weeks here, one in Granada and the other at the beach in San Juan del Sur, both of these places are very popular destinations for tourists.

This country is almost 100% percent Catholic so Semana Santa or Easter Week is a big deal here. We have already seen evidence of this as we move around Granada this week and I thought it would make for an interesting blog post.

The first evening we were walking up the street and saw a procession of mostly young people carrying banners and a large statue...

We then saw the church and went inside to see a full congregation at Mass...

It seems every day and on every corner the people are celebrating Easter...

On Palm Sunday we heard a noise on our street which was from a man setting off firecrackers to announce a large procession carrying Jesus through the streets on a donkey...

Then later as we walked near the Cathedral we came upon another procession and decided to join them...

Entering the church...

The people were singing and waving palms as they walked and ended up at the Cathedral so stayed for mass which we enjoyed even though it was long and in Spanish.

The Bishop arrived and was greeted fondly by the congregation...

Here are some of the people that I managed to capture during the service....  

                 Brother and Sister

                            They were all very reverent!

Then yesterday evening we were told about another special procession that started around 5:30 after Mass. Here hooded people, we are assuming men entered the church and carried out several large statutes through the streets.

There was a large crowd gathered  expectantly waiting for the procession to begin...

There were many families with small children...

Many people wore purple shirts with a picture of the crucified Jesus...

Others had their children dressed in purple...

And there was even a miniature Jesus...

Here are the hooded people going into the church...they were a little scary...

Inside the church...

Leaving the church for the procession through the streets...

Again we joined in for a walk through the streets of Granada....

Today we were fortunate enough to take part in an annual tradition where the 14 Stations of the Cross are celebrated on the lake with the processions being in small boats. The lake has 365 islands and 14 of them erect crosses to participate in this ritual. There were a few foreigners but mostly locals and a documentary crew from England. 

We arrived at the docks a little after seven to load our boat...

Jesus can also be seen on the dock waiting to be loaded on his boat.

The boats slowly make their way out through the lagoon and wait for the Jesus boat to appear...

While we waited we saw beautiful shore birds..

The islands are home to many campesinos who fish for a living and as we went by we saw some young people fishing from the shore...

We then heard the band playing and the Jesus boat was coming full steam ahead with the priests and the bishop onboard...

Then the flotilla started...

Though most of the islands are inhabited by poorer people some of the wealthy Nicaraguans have built summer homes and that is where we stopped for the first station which had an elaborate cross.

The Jesus boat then goes up, stops in front and the priests recite the prayers for each station...

Here is a stop at a much simpler cross and we can see Jesus going close to the shore. At each stop the person also handed the priests a note which contained requests for special prayers.

As prayers are said at each station the rest of the boats wait nearby...

Another station...

And interesting part of the procession were boats filled with children portraying the crucifixion. These children were dressed in costume and stayed perfectly still for hours under the hot sun.

The boats were brightly decorated...

The angel and the devil....

There are so many other great pictures to share but no room on the post this time.

This procession went on for about 3 hours and was so interesting and we felt fortunate to be able to witness it. We only wish that we could be here on Good Friday and Easter Sunday as the celebrations only get more elaborate.

This is just a glimpse into what we have experienced here these last few days so we already have many rich memories of Granada.

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