Good Friday in Oaxaca

That day was yesterday and it started out very quiet, as Nancy and I were laying in bed, not hearing the usual sounds we hear each morning. We had to check it out and our street was very quiet also, so we had our breakfast and about 9:00 AM headed out to find out what had happened to our uusally very busy and noisy city.

It did not take long for it to come to life a bit as we started witnessing small processions, with a platform carrying the figure of Christ or Mary or both, carried by men or women on their shoulders. They started in various small churches in Oaxaca and all finishing at La Solidad, the mother church in Oaxaca. All very quiet and low keyed. This continued for most of the day but all during the day we were hearing about a huge procession, called the Procession de Silencio, or in english, the procession of silence. It was to pass right by our apartment. We heard that it was to start at 5:00 PM and then at 6:00PM. We went into our apartment for happy hour and supper and came out again at 7:00 and still no procession but people were starting to line the street. Finally at 8:00 we saw it coming and the following 15 photos show what it was all about. All the platforms come from various churches in Oaxaca, just as earlier in the day but now they were much more grand than the earlier ones. Again, carried by men and women on their shoulders, in bare feet and mostly hooded and wearing conical hats.

And as the name implies, it was silent only the sound of a drum, to add to the mysticism of it all. The streets were lined with 100s of people but no sound, just silence. It was wonderful but a bit spooky.

Besides the platforms there were maybe 200 meters of these banners, I am sure weighing 20kg each and carried on a sling around a persons waist.