Easter in the campo

Happy late Easter everyone. So this year as my family was getting together for the traditional family reunion with fun filled activities and easter egg hunt in Texas, I was in my community learning all about Catholic Panamanian traditions.




It all started with Palm Sunday where everyone brought palm leaves and attached to them were bags of beans, corn, and other things that the people are getting ready to plant so that the father of this catholic church could bless their future crops for good yield this year. Pic below shows everyone in the park with their palm leaves getting blessed by holy water. I was gifted a palm leaf so the father could bless and then I could keep in my house until next year. I was told it was for the witches...

The Thursday before Easter was a celebration at church that I didn´t go to but was told that various people got their feet washed as a representation of the message. Then on Friday, everyone met at church at 7am to carry a cross that was made by some people in the community to one of the hills in the area. I was told that we got lucky because this year the hill was close by (an almost 2 hr hike).

(above) Here we are about 15 minutes into the walk. Two men are carrying the cross and the rest of those participating from the community (over 100 people) are behind me. You see that peak in the distance? That´s the hill we´re heading to. You may also notice the machinery in the distance as well (we just got a road and they are finishing it up). This is also the road to my house.

(above) Now its the lady´s turn to carry the cross. I went next with another 5 young women.

(above) Almost there.... There are a lot more people you can´t see who haven´t made it up the rocks just yet.


(above) We made it on top, the father gave his last of 14 (yes we stopped 14 times) messages and we sang the last of the songs and said our 14th ¨Our Father¨ prayer, a hole was dug and bing bang batoboom here is the cross on the hill. My house is down there somewhere in the distance.

On Saturday night at 10:30pm to about 1am we had another (the last) church mass of the Easter season where people from all over hiked over 2 hours to come. This was called a fogata and there was a big bon fire.

To experience Easter in another country, in a different religion with different traditions where the people are humble and depend on the land to live was something that I never imagined to experience. An experience like this brings you back to reality so while I as a child was getting dressed up in my Easter dress concerned only with hunting eggs with candy and confetti, there are other children around the world helping their parents get the seeds to the farm ready to be blessed by the father so that they can have enough food to eat throughout the year. Just one of the MANY experiences that has and will shape me for the rest of my life.