Happy Easter!

Lots of things to do and see during Holy Week.

Easter is mostly a traditional, religious holiday here in Cuenca.  No Easter eggs, no baskets, no Easter bunnies.  Just an occasional chocolate bunny, but not necessarily just for Easter.  We did find a few bunny cookies this year.

A special Easter soup, called Fanesca, is prepared with 12 different ingredients, representing the 12 Aposilles, and salted cod.  Each family and restaurant have their own récipe. It can take days to prepare the ingredients.  Fanesca is only served during Holy Week.

Sincé we hadn't had Fanesca for a couple years, this year we tasted 2 kinds with friends.  One versión served the fish separately, the other version's cook added the cod in as it cooked. 
Kind of a strong, fishy flavor, both versions, but milder tasting without the fish cooked in.

(The first 2 soup pictures show the soup with little empanadas and then the separate fish.  The third pic is with the fish in.  That is not an onion ring.  We think it's banana. Both have lots of different kinds of beans and grains.)

On Good Friday, it is traditional to visit 12 Churches.  We managed to visit only 3 this year.  Mass was in progress during our visits, so no pictures, out of respect for the faithful.  We'll have to go back at another time for some interior shots.  Not all of our 53 churches are open every day, so it was a treat to be able to see the interior of some often closed.

Easter morning began with, what we thought, sunrise services at first.  LOUD singing, off-key...But, you know what?  Now we think it was the tail-end of a monster party in the neighborhood!
Those off-key singers were probably on their way to bed (or should have been!)

Church bells rang out all over the City during the day.  The Church nearby began Services about 9am, a more sane hour for music and celebration on Easter morning.

We enjoyed this parade of high school students! 

Not sure what the occasion was, besides Easter.

The parade was a good block long, very organized with transit pólice, ice cream vendors, street cleaners (in green), and an ambulance bringing up the rear.  Fun to take these pics from 6 stories up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're hoping you found the golden egg today and everyone ate lots of chocolate bunnies (or See's chocolate eggs!  or jelly beans!  or Peeps!!)   

Happy Easter!  Happy Spring to all in the North, too.