Semana Santa and the Easter Bunny
Posted on March 31, 2010 - Filed Under Culture Clash, Guatemala | 8 Comments
When I was growing up, we knew what Easter was about, Jesus dying for our sins and being resurrected. We dyed eggs and sometimes my mom hid them. Once, my grandmother sent us an Easter basket full of candy and with a stuffed bunny for each of us. My pink bunny is still in existence, kicking around the my parent’s basement.
Then I moved to Guatemala and Easter took on a whole new meaning. Here, they do it BIG. We’re talking full on days of laying beautiful sawdust carpets on the cobblestones, staggering along under enormous floats that depict every step of Jesus’ journey to the cross and his return . . . it’s big.
My first Semana Santa was spent wandering the streets with other touristy friends and not sleeping for three days, trying to see all the sights. At that point, I wasn’t planning on staying here, so I figured this was my one chance to check it all out.
The next year, I trudged along beside Irving in the processions, bringing him food and water and keeping him company for days on end.
The year after that, I had Dorian, he was just four months old. We walked alongside Irving in the San Bartolo procession, breaking only to change diapers. I even had a tourist take a picture of Dorian because I was carrying him in the suti and for some reason, despite my very white skin and light eyes, the guy thought I was Guatemalan and tried to speak to me in broken Spanish. I let him think it. Nothing interesting about a snapshot of a gringo baby when you get home from a vacation in Guatemala! 
And that was my last Semana Santa. The following year I was 50 months pregnant with Dante, just waiting for the heat to end and for the kid to hurry up and get his butt out of my womb and had NO desire to hike the streets of Antigua with another kid on my back. Doubly so the following year.
This year, we’d planned to take the boys into town to see some of the processions that Irving isn’t working. Of course, this all depended on us having a vehicle and being able to get within ten blocks of town. Since the car is dead, that’s not happening, so it looks like another stay home year for us.
The funny thing is that I still dye eggs with the kids and we’re making little Easter baskets this year and cookies . . . they have no clue about the processions or carpets, but they’re well versed in Canadian traditions! 
I was trying to explain to my maid why I bought white eggs the other day and showed her photos from our last batch of Easter eggs. She was puzzled. I explained that in Canada and the US, many kids are told that the Easter Bunny comes to bring the eggs. She frowned, thinking, then said, “So, do you eat this bunny?”
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8 Responses to “Semana Santa and the Easter Bunny”
Talk to Me, People!
Oh my, normally we peel the eggs to eat them here in the states Genesis.
Laughing at your maids response. Funny, I would think everyone would know about colouring eggs. I messed up and bought 36 brown eggs this week. What was I thinking? Back to the store to get 36 white ones. (I have a lot of children who LOVE to dye the eggs!)
((hug))
Kimmie
mama to 8
one homemade and 6 3/4 adopted
It sounds as if the at-home preparations are more fun. I love those bunnies! I’m still a kid at heart…after all, I’m only 70 years old.
LOL, Kimmie, he actually did peel the top part of the egg before he ate it.
I’m sure you will have no trouble getting through all those eggs with your brood! Time for some Eggs Benedict!
Cheerful Monk, I think physical age has no bearing on mental/heart age . . . I still feel 17 myself!
Eat the Easter Bunny???? That’s nightmare material right there for millions of kids around the world. I’ve never tried dying eggs before, so will have to try it with my boys. Easter isn’t such a big thing here in Australia.
Be verrrry quiet, I’m hunting wabbits!
We are dying more eggs than our usual limit this year because Honor has learned to like hard boiled eggs. Used to be only me and I can only eat so many! I recently read a good article about where the Easter traditions come from http://thepaganandthepen.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/where-did-that-bunny-come-from/
My boys aren’t too fond of boiled eggs, either, I’m afraid. Irving will eat them in egg salad, though, so we have about three lunches after Easter where we eat only egg salad sandwiches!
We just finished coloring our eggs and my son wants to cut one open, take out the yolk, and replace it with paper confetti. Then you smash it on someone’s head for a joke. He says he learned in school that’s done in Guatamala. Have you heard of that?! Just curious. . .
Yes, confetti eggs are very popular here, but during Carnival, rather than Easter. They fill the egg shell with confetti (pica pica) and then cover the outside with bits of tissue paper to make it brightly colored.