Madre Virgen de Suyapa

This weekend there is a celebration in town for the Madre Virgen de Suyapa, the Virgin Mary who showed herself here in Tegucigalpa way back in the day. To celebrate this day, people from all over Honduras come to the iglesia Suyapa to pray, worship, and thank Mary for her presence.

Over the past year the church has been completely closed off. The area was so high risk for muggings (or perhaps even worse) that visitors needed special paperwork to approach the church. Priests were even being mugged. HOWEVER, due to the holiness of this time, the church was opened back up for this weekend. Jennifer, our friend Ever, and I went up to see the commotion. When would I ever get the opportunity to see inside the church again?

Roads of markets selling rosaries, figurines, and candles were set up just below the church walkways. Outside the church, families had set up camp to spend the whole week near the church u; the used blankets tied to trees and gates to create some sort of shelter. Inside the church, about half of the ground space was covered with more campers. Near the alter an evangelical sermon took place over speaker. A statue to the Virgin Suyapa was placed nearby, where a line of humble Hondurans awaited for 2 seconds in her presence.


Just down the road from the church was a fair, where we ate chocolate covered grapes, rode the ferris wheel, and listened to music.

Overall, it was a wonderfully cultural night out.