Human Flower Project
In Panchimalco
A town 17 km. outside El Salvador’s capital celebrates the Virgin, and the rainy season.
Women of Panchimalco, El Salvador, decorated coconut palm fronds with flowers for the town’s annual Dia de las Flores procession, May 8.
Photo: Edgar Romero, for AP
The natural and spirit worlds are in tune. So proves the El Salvadoran town of Panchimalco. Each year, the village celebrates its two patronesses, The Virgin of the Rosary and the Virgin of the Conception, just as the region welcomes its long, lush rainy season. Thus, the Blessed Virgin in both her manifestations can be saluted and adorned with local springtime flowers.
One distinction of this floral honoring of Mary—and there are many such customs—is that El Salvador’s tropical climate favors not just flowers but palm trees too. Customarily, in Panchimalco flowers are attached to coconut fronds, which wave over the statues of the patron saint like the plumage of supernatural birds.
Day of the Flowers procession, Panchimalco, El Salvador
Photo: El Salvador en Imagines
Even in photographs, the procession is a wonder to behold. Most sites I’ve found about this ritual are in Spanish, but I gather that the statue of the Virgin of the Rosary is prepared and venerated at the home of the local “mayordomo” the night before the procession. “La capitana,” a leading woman in the village, takes charge of The Virgin of the Conception’s statue, likewise with a holy vigil through the night. At 4 a.m. the music begins and both groups meet before the church, winding through the streets and returning for a special Mass.
This is the only Hispanic processional rite I know of where women share in carrying the sacred statues, an honor—and effort— usually reserved for men.