Culture, history, songs and of course, the Spanish language, are just some of the things that Senora Hydle, our Spanish teacher works hard to bring to our children at Highland Hall.
Senora Hydle, originally from Guatemala, moved to the U.S. a few years ago and, as some of you may already know, she is very proud of her heritage.
“I believe bringing some of my culture into the classroom is important to help the students learn about the language as well as the people they are communicating with. There is such a variety of cultures in Latin America sometimes it is surprising for students to find out that other countries have completely different cultures, traditions and even speak differently.”
This past spring break Senora Hydle brought back a wealth of culture to share with the students from her visit to Guatemala during “Semana Santa” or, as you may know it, Easter.
Semana Santa in Guatemala is one of the largest Easter week celebrations in Latin America and Spain. Entire neighborhoods work together through the night and day to make wonderful alfombras (carpets) created out of colored sawdust, flowers and fruits. Then every day or evening processions of hundreds of people slowly carry large wooden floats holding religious icons on their shoulders through the streets and over the alfombras destroying them as they pass.
During Semana Santa there are usually between one to three processions happening in each city and town every day in Guatemala and each procession can last between four to eight hours winding through the street as the floats are transitioned from one group of people to the next, all the while accompanied by the sound of the marching band usually following behind.
If you would like to know or see more, you can view pictures at Senora Hydle’s website:
Semana Santa in Guatemala City
Semana Santa in Antigua