Church on Semana Santa began at 11. We got there just after 11, the boys in swim shorts, to start climbing the steps with hundreds of other people in a mixture of skirts and tops, to sweatpants and tank tops to jeans and clubbing outfits. We filed into the church which had benches in rows going outwards in a cross shape from the circular altar. We sat down and the service started soon after, though people kept on coming and going throughout the service.
It started normally with a nun saying a blessing, and then the jazz piano began and all my ideas of Chilean church went out the window.
The jazz piano played all through the service with help in the anthems from two guitarists, a very jazzy choir, and a man in the tightest pair of jeans I have ever seen, gelled hair and a t-shirt who got up behind the pulpit with his guitar to sing his solo.
The more traditional bits of the service were performed by the nuns and the priest, but the choir stole the show, and we left the church 50 minutes later to a Spanish jazz version of the saints go marching. As we left, people were still filing in milling about in front of the church, much more a party atmosphere then a serious one, and a high percentage of teenagers, fleites and normal.
All together a pretty good way to spend Pascua.
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