Black Christ Festival

A couple of weeks ago I headed to the Black Christ Festival in Portobelo, and I gotta say if you are ever down here on October 21st you should definitely go. I went with Seth and Nikki who are a couple of my fellow volunteers here in Coclé. We arrived in Portobelo a little after noon, and spent the next few hours wandering around town and sampling the street meat. Portobelo has two of the oldest Spanish forts in Panama, and was one of the major points of transit for Spanish gold as it was leaving the New World. The area surrounding Portobelo is gorgeous, and I believe with a little work from the government, they could turn Portobelo into a great tourist destination. The problem currently is that signage and information describing Portobelos historical importance are lacking. There are a few signs but they mainly give dates and lack historical context.

But that was not why we were there. We were there for the festival, and the festival was amazing.
People make a pilgrimage from all over Panama in handmade purple robes (though most are afro-antilleanos from Colon province.) They walk to Portobelo, and once they reach the town borders, they crawl the rest of the way on hands and knees. Some remove their robes and have hot wax from candles dripped on their back as penance while they crawl. Usually they work in teams with a friend or relative carrying an image of the black christ in front and shouting words of encouragement while another drips hot wax. Some woment crawl with their children on their back or stomach (people crab walk, when their knees become bloody.)

The pilgrims arrive all day until Mass at 7pm. After Mass, the statue of the Black Christ is removed from the church an carried around town in a procession until midnight when the statue re-enters the church. Afterwards, the whole town parties until 3 am. The whole experience was amazing and incredibly. 40,000 people descended on a town of only 2000, and only a handful of us were gringos. The best word to describe it is authentic, you can really feel the emotion and strength of belief from the pilgrims. You get the feeling that this is a celebration by the people, for the people, as opposed to a celebration by the Church for the people.

With that said, on to the photos...

The first of two forts overlooking the harbor. Portobelo is located inside a natural harbor.

This is the second fort and closer to town. People are allowed to go wherever they like inside the forts.

Looking down on "downtown" Portobelo. About 2,000 people live in Portobelo.

Seth and Nikki demonstrating the Panamanian shirt roll.

Sitting in a window of one forts. One of the few places that didn't smell like urine. With 40,000 people and no port-a-potties, the forts did double duty.

A man crawls through the entrance of the church as a woman drips hot wax on his back.

A group of pilgrims in their purple robes enters the church.

The Black Christ himself. Behind him is a statue of James helping him carry the cross. Unfortunately, this photo doesn't give a good idea of the size of the platform he stands on, but its large and heavy.

Worshippers carrying homade idols of the Black Christ. Many of these were carried in front of pilgrims as they crawled for inspiration. It's hard to see, but many were blinged out with christmas tree lights and at least one black light.

These men are carrying the platform that holds the Black Christ. There were approximately 30-40 men per side to carry the platform.

A view from a balcony as the procession marches down the street

What a view to wake up to. Five minutes after waking up, I was swimming off the end of the pier. During the festival, we ran into another group of volunteers who had a friend with a house near Portobelo, and we ended up spending the night at his place. Thanks Humberto!