Haitians commemorate Good Friday with prayer, procession and rara music | PHOTOS

CAP-HAÏTIEN — When worship songs started playing from the speakers during the Good Friday March, many of the thousands of worshippers on Letter A in Cap-Haïtien shut their eyes. It was their way to easily connect to arguably the most pivotal and tragic moment in Christianity: the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Some squeezed their faces with emotional sorrow as their lips moved in inaudible prayers, others slowly waved their hands in the air. Meanwhile, other worshippers slowly sang along. The worshippers were tightly pressed together in the streets and most of them wore white, forming a white sea under the cloudy sky. 

The worshipers marched and stopped at the different stations of the procession to pray and adore God. Some of them carried umbrellas since it drizzled for a short period of time during the march. Despite the rain, the march had a great turnout in Cap-Haïtien, similar to other regions in Haiti.

For instance, in Fort-Liberté, multiple worshippers also marched in the streets in the Good Friday Procession. Over in Gonaïves, several rara bands animated the streets with the sound of their music as part of a Good Friday tradition. Dancers and attendees danced to the rhythm of the bands’ horns and drums.

In Port-au-Prince, where gangs have taken control of a large part of Haiti’s capital, Good Friday nearly went unnoticed. The Catholic Church did not hold a procession, nor did rara bands march in the streets due to the dreadful gang violence crisis there. But traditional kite-flying activities could be seen across Delmas, in Ti Plas Kazo, Clercine and Gérald Bataille, lacking the excitement they once held.

The Saint-Clair Church in Delmas 33 also held a mass to remind the faithful of the death of Jesus. Additionally, Deja Rara band provided small meals of fish, potatoes, eggs, yams and Kijan pou fe (Haitian russian salad) to residents in Ti Plas Kazo.

Relive some of the most holy moments of Good Friday in Haiti in The Haitian Times’ series of images and videos.

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