Semana Santa -- Part 2

The best known of the Semana Santa activities is the Passion play, known as Vía Crucis, which is a performance re-enacting the crucifixion of Christ, including the last supper, betrayal, and procession of the 12 stations of the Cross. Although the annual Passion play takes place in many neighborhoods throughout the nation, the most ornately staged is in Iztapalapa, a suburb of Mexico City. The traditional presentation began in 1833 after a major cholera epidemic killed off most of the neighborhood's population. The survivors decided to express their appreciation to "Nuestro Señor" who they believed had spared their lives. We took the metro to Iztapalapa to get a glimpz of the proceedings.

The entire town gets involved in the celebration - utilizing more than 3,000 nonprofessional actors, and it attracts more than crowds of nearly 2 million people. (I believe we were the only two gringos, however)

It was amazing how much time, money and effort are devoted to the entire spectacular, which is a 5-hour procession. (We didn't stay the entire length)

This is a picture of me with a few of the "disciples." There were hundreds of them.
Being a Roman soldier was also a popular part. Most of them were on horseback. (This is before the procession.)
And here's a small part of the procession . . .



Because we didn't have the five hours to watch the completion of this one, we attended an abbreviated version in another borough.




This certainly has been a week of cultural enlightenment and I have to admit, the people here focus very passionately on the religious aspects of Easter. However for me, the general conference address given by Elder Holland last week was far more moving and penetrating than anything I have seen in the past few days. Go here to view his talk. Audio and video archives
or Easter Message—None Were with Him,"