This is adorable: the little kids in the family have been playing "Procession" several times this week. What's "Procession"? Well, during Cuaresma, the forty days leading up to Semana Santa, every Friday afternoon there is a procession of townspeople carrying the figure of the Jesus that leaves from the Parrochia at 4pm and walks at a painfully slow (I suppose, reverent) pace throughout the town, pausing at some 10 or 15 "stations", and finally returning anywhere between 6 and 12 hours later (the time they stay out lengthens each week). I got my first glimpse of the Procession game last week when I heard the kids chanting and solomnly singing hymns. I stepped out of my room to find them with a teddy bear dressed as Jesus and surrounded by flowers propped up on a plank that they were, also very reverently, carrying throughout the house and yard, pausing at the stations. They did a great job recreating the scene. The kids carrying the plank padded their shoulders against the pretend weight. Little "Canche" carried an urn of burning incense and let it pendulum back and forth as they do in Mass. Little David scurried ahead to each station, diligently laying out a reed mat and dusting its surface to prepare it for the Christ Bear and the bearers there-of to rest before continuing on. Jenny used a bath towel as her white shawl. There was an offering plate, candles, and an alter to boot. Prayers were held at each station.
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