Ruptly
"Dozens of devotees took to the streets of Taxco for the city's annual Holy Week procession, marking the suffering and death of Jesus Christ through acts of public penance and devotion. Footage filmed on Wednesday and Thursday shows flagellants whipping their backs with ropes and encruzados carrying heavy rolls of thorny blackberry branches on their shoulders, arms outstretched in the shape of a cross, walking in silence through the cobblestone streets. Women follow dressed in black, barefoot, and dragging chains. "One does it with the aim of redeeming oneself with someone, above all with God. [...] In my case, I had a family member who was ill, in a serious condition, and honestly, I went through very difficult moments, and I asked God, and thanks to him, he is now at home," one of the participants shared on Tuesday. The practice, although striking for outside observers, is understood by those involved as a legitimate expression of faith. They insist it is not a spectacle, but an intimate spiritual experience expressed through the body. "It is showing faith in a more real way. It is making the body also reflect what our interior wants for God. Although God does not really see this as necessary," another participant said. The tradition has roots in the colonial period, when Spanish friars introduced practices of public penitence as part of evangelization. Inspired by medieval European rituals, these expressions were adopted and reinterpreted by local communities, blending indigenous and Catholic elements. The main acts of this celebration take place on the night of Holy Tuesday with the Procession of the Souls and on Good Friday with the Sermon of the Flagellation, which is followed by the Stations of the Cross. "
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