This Palm Sunday I had my first experience of a Religious Procession, Brazilian Style! I was very impressed with it and it was a lovely religious experience. We started at 7.30 am in the poorest part of the town in "Bairro {District} Nossa Senhora Guadalupe" and processed through the bairros to the Matriz {Mother Church - Santo Antonio}. We sang the whole way, stopping at different stations along the way where we had prayers and readings. The children from the catechism classes did some drama, mostly on this years Lenten Theme "Save & respect The Amazon, its peoples, animals, land and water." The procession ended with a packed house for Mass. All other masses for the day were cancelled, which made our start of Holy Week a truly community celebration.
Church and hall at Nossa Senhora Guadalupe, decorated with local palm. Notice the shadows of the early morning sun, still it was hot!
Padre Derek Blessing the Palms before we set out.
The first Gospel was read and acted out with our very own Jesus, disciples, Pharisees and Donkey. Then Jesus and disciples lead the way.
So we started off on our procession, notice the dirt road.
Part of the crowd. We picked up more people as we progressed. Different groups were waiting at the different stations along the route. Mind you, we lost a lot of youngsters as we passed by a football match in the local sports hall!!
