Semana Santa alfombras, Ayacucho

One of the biggest religious festival in Peru is Semana Santa, and one of the most famous and biggest celebrations occur in Ayacucho.

During the Holy Week, the whole town of Ayacucho is abuzzed with activities and decked in colour. One of the predominant sights you will see is teams preparing their alfombras or Semana Santa carpets. These carpets cover pretty much most of the Plaza de Armas or central square, as well as many side cobbled streets and alleys. Made from sand, coloured sawdust, flowers etc, they are art masterpieces in every sense of the word. Intricate designs, outstanding colours, precise craftsmanship, I am truly impressed by these carpets. It is said that the design takes months to come up with, and is unique every year. But sadly, they don't last beyond 24 hours....

 
 

As part of the celebrations and ceremonies during the week, there will be daily processions where participants show their devotion and/or perform religious rites. These alfombras are actually constructed on the processional route/path. So these artful carpets get trampled on, shuffled through (especially those carrying big floats!), and essentially gets wiped out after each procession. And even if they are not, they would be, to make way for the next alfombra to be constructed. Depending on the size and complexity, some can take 12 hours or more, so I guess it would be some sort of a race to get it completed before the next coming procession.

There will be alot of other celebrations and ceremonies in Ayacucho, and as mentioned, Ayacucho hosts one of the biggest. So accommodations and transport should be booked in advance. We were there in the early part of the week and did not see many foreign tourists. However, come Good Friday to Easter Sunday, the entire town is packed with locals and foreign tourists alike. The tourist offices and visitor centres are supposed to have more information regarding the activities happening, but it seems that most are in Spanish only. Nevertheless, you can always find something happening somewhere!

While I am not a Catholic (nor any religion for the matter), I thoroughly enjoyed the sights and festivities in my 1 week in Ayacucho. Especially the beautiful, colourful Semana Santa alfombras.

Kurama Fire Festival

October 22 is a good day to be in Kyoto. Aside from the famous Jidai Festival, there is another interesting festival held on the same day - the Kurama Fire Festival (Kurama Hi Matsuri). While the Jidai Festival is held during the day, Kurama Fire Festival happens in the evening, so you get a full day of activities!

The Fire Festival however, is held in the village of Kurama, 30-45 min away from Kyoto by train. The village itself, is a delightful "traditional wooden houses" village, and makes for a good visit on its own. The festival is a ritual where huge pine torches are used to guide spirits between the realm of the living and the dead. It begins at 6pm where the houses in the village would light up with watch fires at their entrances. Then the local residents would get their young children to bear small pine torches and conduct a procession ceremony through the village chanting "Sai rei ya, Sai ryou" (which means "festival, good festival!"). Subsequently, the men (in traditional costume of loincloth and a strange half-shirt) would do similar, with huge pine torches, some weighing 100kg! Two portable shrines are then paraded through the streets and eventually, enshrined at a place called "Otabisho". On October 23, another ceremony takes place where these portable shrines are then taken down and enshrined at the Yuki jinja shrine.

Festival start off with young children bearing small pine torches

The adults carry a much bigger torch!!

It's heavier than it looks! And note the interesting attire they are wearing

Starting procession with portable shrines

A few notes and information to people (esp photographers) making a trip to see the festival.
- Aside from the fires, there are very little other lighting. So generally, there will be big differences in lighting in your scenes.
- Due to the crowds, the whole site is heavily policed with very restricted lanes for tourists to move in. You will be literally herded in a "path" designated for tourists.
- This festival is a traditional local festival - it is not something designed for tourists. So bear that in mind. While you may want to capture a promising frame, respect the people and festival, and not interfere/interrupt the procession. Moreover, it's very chaotic, smoky, and fires burning everywhere, so safety is important.
- A tripod is not practical for this festival (esp the limited space) though a monopod may be useful.
- There will be ALOT of waiting. Right from the start at Kyoto. At Demachiyanagi station on the Eizan Railway in Kyoto, I arrived at 5pm. The queue was spilling out of the station, and I waited till 6.45pm before I could board the tiny local train to Kurama. The festival runs till 12 midnight, and after 8pm, the frequency of trains back to Kyoto was also reduced. So similarly, I had to wait more than an hour for the train back, boarding my train at 10+pm.
- Due to the crowds and the limited space in the village and the designated tourist "lanes", sometimes you could get stuck in the "queues" for 10-20 minutes without moving!

So, if you are very adverse to crowds in smoky environment, or have little patience for waiting, then perhaps you have to think twice about this festival. Other than that, the Kumara Fire Festival is certainly one of the more interesting festivals in Japan!