The Holy Week (Semana Santa) begin on Palm Sunday ( Domingo de Ramos). All over Ecuador the belivers buy on market palm leafs and bring them to the church.
On Shrove Thursday the families bring food and beverages to their relatives’ graves on the local cemeteries, this custom is very similar to All Saints Day.
On Good Friday through the streets of Quito runs the parade of flagellants hurting their bodies with scourges , men carrying big wooden crosses and disciplinants called ‘cucuruchos’.
The tradition of cone-head robes starts in Middle Ages Spain, when the capirote hat was placed on the head of a person before the execution as a symbol of public humiliation.
Capirote has been also used by the disciplinants during the processions as an act of faith in God, who will appreciate their pursuit for the inner change, leading to salvation.
Similar processions are commenced in several Latin America countries, in Ecuador besides Quito the tradition is vivid especially in Chimborazo district ( towns Yaruquies,Tixan,Chasmbo and Chunchi).
[ photo : courtesy of exedu]
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