Vicki's Travel Journals

Good Friday 2013 Cucuruchos of Quito, Ecuador

Australia | Sunday, March 31, 2013 | flickr photos

Every Good Friday people from all over Ecuador, and the world, from all walks of life, come together to make a very public display of religious devotion. Whilst keeping their anonymity, they make a very personal journey by donning the Cucurucho dress, which is a conical headpiece with face cover, and robes in bright shades of blue and purple. Some are so fanatically devoted to Christ that they re-enact the procession to Calvary through the fourteen Stations of the Cross, carrying and dragging heavy wooden crosses and wearing crowns of thorns. Others self-flagellate with branches of thorns or poison ivy, dragging heavy chains attached to manacled and bloodied feet along the strenuous processional route up and down the incredibly steep streets of Old Town Quito. Most carry personal religious icons of various kinds. The Veronicas are women and girls dressed in blue and purple robes with lace veils. They represent the women who cleansed the blood from Jesus and gave him comfort in the last tortuous hours of his life. The Veronicas walk the path singing eerily soothing yet melancholy psalms and carrying their own religious icons. The Fransiscan monks who follow in white robes make a beautiful contrast to the blues and purples of the Cucuruchos and the Veronicas. Magnificent statues of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and St. Francis, enter the grand plaza of the Cathedral of San Fransisco forecourt escorted and protected by paramilitary police because these statues are so revered by the people that merely to touch one of them is believed to be the highest possible blessing. The event culminating with the San Franciscan monks leading the somewhat sombre crowd in ‘Musica Sacra’.