Semana Santa

Nicaragua’s government has closed down for Semana Santa…or Holy Week (the week that started yesterday with Palm Sunday and runs through Easter Sunday). All schools are closed, including the medical schools. And the vast majority of businesses will run through Wednesday mid-day and then close for the rest of the week.

It reminds me of the Fourth of July when I was a kid growing up in a rural community where almost all our neighbors worked in mills and the mills closed down so everyone went on vacation mostly to the beach….which is what most with jobs do here.

It is also as hot! Semana Santa is known for its heat. Spring started a little more than a week ago for you in the north. Flowers will start blooming and leaves will have that fresh, baby green color where the light shines through…life begins again.

Passover also starts this week. Nicaragua is more like Passover. It is dry here...dusty…hot….and everything here appears dead.

Much of Nicaragua is Catholic. Viernes Santo or Holy Friday is the day most remembered…the execution of Jesus by the Romans. Twelve steps of the cross are enacted over and over in barrios across the country. Easter is celebrated by some but the day of suffering is what is most remembered.

Nicaraguans understand suffering. With almost half the country living on less than $1.00/day and three-quarters on less than $2.00/day…suffering is a part of their minute-by-minute existence. What they dream of…what they hope for is freedom. They work like slaves to stay alive and if they were set free to determine their own destiny that would be…that would be…well, a miracle!

They understand the suffering and death of Jesus so much more than the hope of Easter. They know pain. They know hunger, thirst, violence….and death. Sometimes - I think – for them it is almost too much to hope for Easter amidst the suffering and death…too much to hope for life amidst the dust, heat, and air filled with burnt particles as brush fires start.

BUT the understanding of BOTH religious events is freedom to experience

• The chains of slaves breaking.
• The chains of death being undone.
• The hope that good will win out.
• The hope that right will conquer wrong.
• The hope that the poor and oppressed will see their day of justice