There are many thousands of people in Antigua this weekend. There are supposed to be many thousands every weekend until Holy Week, then for all of that week. The processions and other religious activities continue. Last time, I wrote about the “Christian mandalas”. They are making them again today. Such effort to make them nice! It takes hours, not to mention the preparation of the flowers, the flower powder, and the other plant materials needed to make them.
We went out this morning before the crowds were too intense. Here are some pictures, most of which are of mandalas being prepared and some finished ones.
The little helpers are so cute.
So, here are some mandalas made mostly of flowers. The tan backgrounds are this huge grain, something like oversized wheat. They crush it into powder and lay it down. It’s a little windy today, so they have been spraying a little water on it.
Like I said, it’s a good thing we went out early. Around 3 o’clock, the procession started. In true Tibetan form, all the hard work was obliterated. Some pics of the procession are coming after more mandala photos.
The material for this street art isn’t limited to flowers. Fruit and vegetables are common. Myung and I noticed yellow carrots for sale, which I hadn’t noticed before. I was telling her that I have bought those and don’t think they taste too good. Now you’ll see why they were for sale. When you look at these pictures, just check out what all the different veggies and fruits are. Like, this first one has carrots, yellow squashes, cabbages, red leaf lettuce, green beans, strawberries, mangoes and I don’t know what the blue things are.
This may not be particularly Catholic symbolism, but this mango penguin is toooo cute.
Speaking of cute, my friend Barbara posted a picture of bananas with the stems slit and eyes dotted on them to look just like dolphins. Her photo had grapes in the dolphins’ mouths. Here’s Myung and me plagiarizing her idea.
We have loads of procession pictures. For now, I’m going to go ahead and post this. Be well, all of you.