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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
Mexican Faithful Celebrate Good Friday with Passion Plays, Processions
 Ioan Grillo - Associated Press
| | Cross-carrying penitents take part in a Good Friday procession in the Iztapalapa neighbourhood of Mexico City April 14, 2006. For over 150 years residents of this Mexico City neighbourhood have taken part in a re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion. (Reuters/Andrew Winning) |
Mexico City Thousands of Mexicans lugged heavy crosses through the streets, shed tears and even wore crowns of thorns in reconstructions of the story of Christ's betrayal and execution in towns and cities across the republic on Good Friday.
The biggest performance was in the capital's working class Iztapalapa barrio, where nearly 5,000 people participated in a Passion play in the baking sun.
In the role of Jesus was 24-year old Cristian Ramses, who dragged a cross weighing 95 kilos (210-pounds) for 5 km (3 miles) while other actors jeered and shoved him from the sidewalk. Earlier, he was whipped by muscle-bound actors in Roman military uniforms.
Since I was a kid, I've always wanted to do this, Ramses said in an interview on the Televisa television network. When I was chosen, I couldn't believe it. It was so emotional, I wanted to cry and shout. It filled me with happiness.
With more 90 than million Roman Catholics, Mexico has the second largest number of Catholics in the world after Brazil. It also has some of the most vibrant celebrations of Good Friday the day Christ is believed to have been betrayed by Judas, sentenced by Pontius Pilate and crucified.
In central Puebla state, men covered their faces in black hoods and marched through the streets with their bare chests weighed down in chains and their arms and torsos pierced by pieces of spine-studded cactus.
In the old silver mining town of Taxco, 70 miles south of Mexico City, members of a Catholic brotherhood walked barefoot through the streets on Thursday and Friday, some carrying 5-foot-high crosses and whipping themselves with nail-studded ropes.
In Iztapalapa, the cinder block houses and dusty streets of Iztapalapa were converted to ancient Jerusalem for the grandiose biblical play.
Officials say it is the 163rd year that the Passion play has been enacted in the barrio, although there are references to earlier passion plays in Mexico City going back to the 16th century.
Locals trace the origins of the Iztapalapa performance to a cholera epidemic that killed thousands in 1833, when the southeastern Mexico-City barrio was a mostly Indian town outside of the capital. The epidemic stopped after a huge mass was held and residents started performing the play to give thanks to God.
Ramses, a local of Iztapalapa says he has been training daily in the gym and praying for strength for his performance.
I believe the strength comes from above, he said. I have to give the role everything I have. |
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