Fenns in El Salvador

This is the beginning of the final procession. It started at 5:00 in the afternoon and finishes up back at the basilica at 7:00 am. Everyone lines the streets all night long with candles. We were looking at the alfombras but wanted to leave to get back to San Salvador by dark. We got caught in traffic because of the roads being blocked off for the route of the procession, and ended up smack in front of the basilica!! We were one car away from the entrance to the church! All these black coneheads were lining up in front of us and we realized we were not going any further! So ,I stood up in the sun roof and started taking photos!!

The black robes, masks, and cone hats, remind us in the USA of the KKK. But, in fact, this has been the dress for hundreds of years for these processions. Much longer than our sad history. Only to us Americans is this scary. Jim read the KKK "borrowed" this costume from the Catholic church in direct defiance of this faith. Very sad. As you can imagine the black is symbolic of death and sin. The masks are symbolic of being able to "unmask" ourselves to be better people.

Children participate and walk in the processions.

When the local police realized traffic was being funneled to the basilica they started backing up vehicals. So, we ended up not staying for the procession of the tomb. This is a photo of our "escort"!