I was looking at Salon.com’s little slide show titled “Holy Week around the world” when I saw some interesting Reuters images from Brazil and Spain. Boy, did I do a double-take.
Apparently, Brazil celebrates a “Procession of the Torches” in which the participants wear conical headdresses and carry torches…
Photos:
Reuters and Associated Press photos
Jesus H. Christ — Easter or “Mississippi Burning”?
Anyway, even the Brazilian kiddies get involved in the festivities:
Associated Press and Reuters photos
Looks kinda like the Teletubbies meet the Ku Klux Klan to me…
And what’s this? A prototype of a “Star Wars”-inspired imperial guard for the increasingly embattled Pope Palpatine?
Reuters photo
(Actually, the photo’s caption reads: “Penitents take part in the Santo Sepulcro procession during Holy Week in [La Paz, Bolivia, on] April 2, 2010.”) Also in La Paz:
Associated Press photo
Y en El Salvador:
Reuters photo
Not to be outdone by Latin America, Spaniards also don pointy hats this time of year:
Reuters, AFP and Associated Press photos
That photo above reminds me of “Logan’s Run” and I find it a bit chilling, actually…
And even my neighbor Mexico gets in on the pointy-hat act:
AFP photo
It’s all a bit sKKKary, and I think that my Easter has been ruined…
But seriously, why haven’t I seen this before? I’d thought that I’d already seen it all…
Can the pointy hats and the torches be a coincidence? Was the KKK influenced by Spanish and/or Latin American culture?
I just can’t see images like that and think, “Oh, Easter!” I tend to think: “Oh, a lynching!”
At least in their Holy Week celebrations in Spain and Latin America they don’t actually burn big wooden crosses, though — right?
Anyway, I pick on Spain and Latin America (I love them, or I wouldn’t have learned Spanish), but if you are interested in the topic, Yahoo! News has a much larger slide show of Holy Week celebrations from around the world here, including plenty of pictures — like this one:
Associated Press photo
— of “penitents” in the Philippines volunteering to have nails driven through their hands and feet (one phenomenon that I have been aware of for many years now).
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