La Iglesia de San Felipe

On Ash Wednesday (Ceniza) this week we were able to visit a very impressively decorated church in the nearby town of San Felipe. We walked there from Toby's school with some other teachers and classmates as part of an excursion. This church is always decorated for Ash Wednesday and many locals that are traditional will go there during the evening and light candles and things. Every Friday until Easter a different church in surrounding towns will decorate the church and locals will visit in the evening. There are processions that proceed on the Sundays as well between now and Easter.

The decorations consisted of a scene on a stage where Jesus was above everyone else and there was Moses tapping the rock with his staff. (Note: Each church does a different scene inspired by a verse in the Bible.) There was real water flowing from the scene and lower down a figure drinking from the water. (This impressed me a lot because water, electricity, etc. are pretty costly here, so it's a big sacrifice to have it in the scene.) On the floor the was a very large and elaborate design like a sand painting but using dyed sawdust that local furniture makers save throughout the year to be used during this time. Then surrounding that was a border design made with pineapples, watermelons, oranges, and other fruits. Outside of that creating a bigger barrier were a bunch of floral displays containing lilies, birds of paradise, and many other flowers. You wouldn't believe how awesome it smelled in there with all the fruits and flowers!