Colombians celebrate Holy Week to commemorate Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. During this week, normal activities stop and cities hold processions reenacting scenes from Christ's passion. Three main celebration sites are Pamplona, Popayán, and Mompox. In Pamplona, international choirs perform and children carry figures representing Christ's story. Popayán hosts famous processions on Palm Sunday, Good Tuesday, and Good Friday, plus religious music festivals. In Mompox, people decorate saint figures for street parades and visit cemeteries on Good Wednesday for a musical tribute to the deceased.

1. Semana Santa en
Colombia
Laura Clark

2. Holy Week
 The people of Colombia are very religious Catholics and
they celebrate that religion with what they call Holy
Week.
 During Holy Week, the Catholic religion commemorates
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 It is a ritual that brings cities and towns together to
show their strong Catholic belief. The celebration starts
on Palm Sunday and lasts until Easter Sunday.
 During that week, all of the normal activities are stopped
and all the people put all their time to reenacting the
story of Christ in different ways.
 Pamplona, Popayan, and Mompox are the three main
places that the celebration is taken place.

3. Holy Week in Pamplona
 The International Festival of
Choral Music is one of the
main activities in Pamplona.
Choirs from several countries
show off their musical talents
in the streets.
 The children are a big part of
Holy Week because they
parade along the city carrying
on heavy figures on their
shoulders that represent
scenes from the passion,
death, and resurrection of
Christ.

4. Holy Week in Popayan
 Over the years the Holy Week
processions in Popayán have
become very popular.
 The most famous processions
are The Palm Sunday
Procession, The Good Tuesday
Procession, and The Good
Friday Procession.
 The city also organizes a
festival of religious music.
Musical groups come from
other parts of Colombia and
from foreign countries to
perform in the colonial
temples.

5. Holy Week in Mompox
 Every Holy Week, the
people of Mompox take
our their jewels and
decorate figures of
saints that will parade
in the streets.
 On Good Wednesday,
the people dress up
and go to the municipal
cemetery to see the
famous Serenata a los
difuntos.
 The procession starts
later in the evening
and lasts about ten
hours.