On the way back from the large kite festival we got off our shuttle bus early. As it wound through the congested streets of Antigua, the crowds became very thick and finally we stopped. It didn’t look like we were going anyway anytime soon so we got off to walk the final 1.5km home. It became immediately apparent why we got stopped though. We had run smack dab into a parade of sorts and most of the central core was completely blocked.
The parade turned out to be the All Souls procession that takes place at the end of the day on November 1st. It felt very similar to the Holy week processions we saw in Spain with some differences. The music that accompanied this march through the streets was very dirge-like and performed by scads of tuba players. Nothing does dirge like a tuba. The second thing, it was a sea of black. Spiffy black suits for the men and black dresses for the women. Everyone local that is. Us clueless tourist stood around (and out) dressed in shorts and t-shirts. We didn’t see any guys in pointy hats either but as we were at the tail end of this, we may have missed them. The procession float was massive, definitely larger than the ones we saw for Semana Santa. This ‘float’ was almost an entire block long, made of what looked like solid mahogany and hand carried like the ones in Spain. On top was the lifeless body of Jesus being mourned by the Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel at her side.
It was very crowded on the streets and hard to move around, so we didn’t stay long. This thing looked like it was going to last a few hours. But as we left, we heard the most beautiful music coming out of the nearby church. A mournful haunting female voice singing something also dirge-like. The whole event was quite moving and a fitting end for La Dia de Muertos.
