EscucharGUATEMALA CITY - Holy Week began Sunday in Central America with mixed reports of higher death and accident tolls and celebrations of Christians' belief in the resurection of Jesus Christ.
El Salvador reported a staggering 73 deaths as people took advantage of the vacation days to flock to beaches and public entertainment and recreation sites, jamming highways and crowding the shores.
The National Emergency Committee of El Salvador (COEN in Spanish) reported 73 deaths last weekend resulting from various causes.
Of the total fatalities that occurred between Sunday and Monday, 19 were caused by firearms, 17 by traffic accidents, six by stabbing, three by drowning and the remainder unspecified, according to COEN.
The safety committee reported that it had initiated ``Operation Océano'' to deal with the problems that rise from the hightened traffic and at times reckless celebrations that come as a result of this Catholic holiday week. The operation will remain in effect until April 12. And involves the cooperation of the Red Cross, The National Civil Police and the nation's fire departments.
Authorities in Nicaragua have reported five drownings and four fatal traffic traffic accidents as well as 15 aquatic rescues during the first two days of the week.
Aminta Granera, the chief of the Nicaraguan transit police, called the beginning of this Holy Week ``very violent.''
Her organization has initiated ``Plan Summer'' to deal with the expected increase in accidents.
Guatemalan splendor
Reports from Guatemala were more positive with the traditional parades and festivals marking the beginning of the sacred celebration.
With multitudinous and colorful celebrations on Palm Sunday, Guatemalan Catholics initiated Holy Week with a true religious festival in this country which has the highest population of indigenous people.
Although Sunday night was celebrated all over the country in dozens of processions, those most colored were in the capital and in Antigua Guatemala some 45 kilometers (28 miles) to the southwest.
Carrying images of Jesus Christ on huge platforms, thousands of parishioners inundated the main streets of the city.
Sunday commemorated the arrival of Christ to Jerusalem and one of the most impressive processions took place that night in the capital with a representation of Christ mounting a donkey which was carried in turns by hundreds of faithful in a tradition more than 400 years old.
In this country where more than one half of the population are indigenous, the ancestral, popular, Mayan art is combined with sculptures of the Christ some of which are more than 500 years old and considered great works of colonial art.
Colored carpets of painted sawdust, which take days to make, cover the streets exhibiting molded designs of religious imagery.
The most beautiful street coverings are also found in Antigua and resemble Persian rugs. Some cover monumental proportions stretching for a kilometer.
The cities smell of incense myrrh and copal. Notes of sacred and funeral music fill the streets, interpreted by ambulatory orchestras which have left their pits to follow the processions.
Practically every Catholic church organizes a procession, from the most modest in small villages to those of the capital and Antigua which are composed of thousands of believers.
Few countries of Latin America have so jealously guarded the colonial tradition of Holy Week, a fact which has made these celebrations one of the most profound expression of their culture and one recognized in the work of Guatemala's most important artists and writers.
The mythical and the worldly are combined in a celebration where death is venerated alongside life, in which mourning and contrition are celebrated in tandem with artistic creation, the Guatemalan imagination and a singularly jubilant festival.
