"Silence is Golden". Isn't that what your grandmother used to say? Well, that was certainly true the evening of Good Friday in beautiful downtown Oaxaca for the big Procesión Silenciosa, The Silent Procession.
This is the highlight of Semana Santa here. Many churches get together, bring out their big statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and walk about 2 miles around several blocks from and to the church Sangre de Cristo.
There is an Italian restaurant with a roof top terrace on the route, so we thought we'd have a glass of wine or two while we watched the procession from on high. It just so happens that the food is pretty good here, so we ended up not only having the wine (and a nice artisanal beer), but a salad of marinated octopus and calamari fritti.
We arrived at the restaurant at 5:30, ready for the procession which was to start at 6:00. But Jesus and Mary were a bit late and the procession didn't start until almost 7. I was starting to get a little impatient, as I figured my photographs wouldn't be as good in the dark. But as it turned out, it was a much more beautiful experience in the dark.
It started very slowly, really just slow walk. And just as it started, the full moon was rising over Santo Domingo church. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful scene. The procession consisted of several different statues of Jesus and the Stations of the Cross. The statues were carried by men in robes and hoods, white, red and black. For Americans, of course, this brings to mind the KKK. But this tradition of wearing robes and hoods goes back hundreds of years in Spain, mostly in Castille. Not sure why the hoods, my guess is that it has something to do with not seeing who is carrying the statues, that these people don't matter, only the statue of Jesus or the Virgin matter. But that's just my guess.
Several of these statues came by, and this is being all done in total silence. Nobody is talking in the crowd (well, hardly no one) and the only noise you hear is a dog barking in the distance. Soon a crowd of about 20 men come by, all carrying life size wooden crosses. Behind them, a man with a drum is beating it very slowly. This was the only sound in the whole procession. Then more statues and a few Roman soldiers. Taking up the rear is the big statue of the Virgin de Soledad, the patron saint of Oaxaca. Then the procession was over and everyone around us just gave out a big collective sigh, as if to say, wow, wasn't that spectacular.
I have to say, I was very moved by the whole thing. It was done so beautifully and under that full moon, well, just a big wow.
So this was the end of our trip and what a way to end it. It was a great couple of weeks, two very different weeks. The first was in an area of Mexico where you see no foreign tourists, in the high mountains with a lot of rain. Nice small towns and beautiful scenery. The second week was in Oaxaca, where we also went to small towns, but the focus was on Semana Santa events and food. To end it all with the Procesión Silenciosa under that full moon couldn't have been better.
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