Procession time

Thursday, 7-14-11

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good procession. We did quite a bit of processing during Lent and Holy Week but not since then. There was the Palm Sunday procession with all the beautifully decorated palm fronds; the Stations of the Cross procession in Alejandría with the special altars made from ashes, flowers, plants, confetti, streamers, and a picture; and, of course, the Good Friday procession at night with 30 people carrying the coffin of Jesus around town for 5 hours (though we only stayed for 3½). Ohhh, good times.

Today the ladies told me that we were going to a procession. I was excited. I really like being a part of the processions here. They said tonight it was the Corpus Christi procession. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Why is the procession being held so late? Okay, maybe you’re not thinking that. But after doing a little research about the Feast of Corpus Christi I realized that it was later than usual. It is typically celebrated on the Thursday or Sunday after Trinity Sunday. We were supposed to celebrate it on Sunday, June 26th in the morning but there was a ton of rain so a sort of procession was held inside the church.

I guess they wanted to have a typical procession outside for the Corpus Christi feast so there was also a procession tonight. We were told that the procession started at Holy Hour. The Holy Hour is the Roman Catholic devotional tradition of spending an hour in Eucharistic adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Blanca said Holy Hour started at 6:00pm. Of course, this is El Salvador so we showed up at 6:15pm and the procession didn’t even start until 7:00pm. There was a mass beforehand from 5:00pm to 7:00pm which we didn’t go to.

When the mass ended at 7:00pm everyone came out of the church following the Blessed Sacrament. As is custom, there was a procession around town. Some of the people had brought candles to carry during the procession. We’d forgotten ours at home but Ceci and I bought some right before the procession started. It only lasted about an hour and we didn’t stop walking at any point. Most of the time we were singing as we walked. I knew some of the songs and was able to pick up a few verses of others. The procession ended around 8:00pm back inside the church. There was a short 15-minute Benediction of the Sacrament and then it was over. I love the processions here and I love that I’m learning some of the music and prayers that accompany the processions.

Since it was late and we hadn’t eaten dinner we went across the street to a little restaurant for Salvadoran style tacos. We don’t typically go “out to eat” here in Berlín. We’ll get pupusas, enchiladas, or tacos to take back home sometimes but we don’t normally stay at the “restaurant” to eat. Most places here in Berlín aren’t exactly restaurants like we’d think of the US. But tonight we stayed at the restaurant for dinner. They even had a menu. We all ordered tacos and some pan dulce. Everything was delicious. It was a good way to end the night.

Waiting for the procession to start

At dinner: Please, no photos

Very camera shy