Azueros´s Easter is a week-long celebration combining old-fashioned religious traditions with social and cultural events. For over five hundred years, the Catholic religion has been the driving and uniting force in this region, comprised of the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera.
Mythological stories connected to this holy season abound, expressed in legends such as “señile”, “Headless Father”, “The speaking Ox,” “The sinner of the afterlife” and a series of stories that extol the fear of God and the need to make ammends in our earthly lives in order to reach “heaven” and enjoy the pleasures of celestial life.
Heavily attended Church Masses and processions, as well as popular representations of Christ’s passion and crucifixion, are the highlights of Holy Week in the Azuero Peninsula. Almost all of the region’s communities take part in the liturgies, from Santa Maria to Pedasi and from Guararé to Tonosí, Las Minas and Ocú.
Easter is another valuable Azuero tradition that provides the opportunity to mix with the locals and learn about these sacred expressions of culture – not infrequently tinged with the profane – that they have strived to preserve across the generations.
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