Yesterday was the first day of the big important celebrations - all of which consisted of parade-like festivities.
The first parade involved life-sized Jesus and Mary mannequins on big floats carried by a half-dozen people each. The floats moved towards each other and met at a corner near the cathedral. When Mary "saw" Jesus (who was carrying a cross), she moved towards him and then away and then towards him and then away about eight times until she finally came all the way up to him and "bowed" (the people carrying the front half of the float lowered it to the ground so that the mannequin was at a 45 degree angle to the ground. Then both floats turned and wandered around for a while before we walked away.
I would feel bad thinking that the whole thing was so ridiculous, but everyone else was of the same opinion. I had expected people to cross themselves or recite prayers or do other Catholicky things that I know nothing about, but the atmosphere was much more similar to a Fourth of July kid's bike race than a holy event. People stood around. It was hot. Everyone was talking about unrelated things. No one seemed particularly enthused.
When the floats passed out of sight, the crowd meandered closer to the cathedral and stood around a bit until a live-action recreation of Jesus' crucifixion began. It was complete with Roman soldiers driving Jesus and the two criminals down the street with whips. While these men approached, my host mom told me that the man playing Jesus was her ex-husband. You won't get the full effect of the way she said this unless you imagine her with a Southern accent, but these were her exact words: "He can't make time to see his girls but he's got time to be Jesus". I had to try really hard not to laugh.
Anyway, the little procession moved up onto a make-shift stage and the Romans nailed the three men to the crosses. All the characters were miked and there was a lot of screaming and moaning as the crosses were raised into place. They acted out the entire story and then the bodies were carried away back down the street.
That night, the third and final parade began which was essentially the funeral procession for Jesus. It was supposed to start at 6:30, but in true Costa Rican style, no one started marching until almost 8. The procession was led by a battalion of Roman soldiers, followed by altar boys swinging incense, and then the floats. The Jesus Float was now a big glass coffin/altar thing with the Jesus mannequin inside surrounded by flowers. Mary's float came behind and then two floats with saint mannequins on them. I think they were Saint Peter and Saint Jude but it was hard to be sure. Normally at a parade you stand in one place and let everything pass by you and then you are done, but for this parade we kept moving down the route. We would stand and let everything pass and then cut around to a place ahead of the floats and wait for everything to pass again, and then repeat the process. It was easy to do this because the floats moved at about 1 mile per hour.
Even this event, which seems like the kind of thing that would be very solemn - a funeral procession with a plastic Jesus in a coffin - was just spectacle to all the people. They all just seemed glad to have a week off of work, and the parades were just entertainment. Whatever the case it was a really cool cultural experience, even if the whole thing seemed kind of ridiculous to me.
