2023 – “San Antonio” meets Hackensack, NJ
……………………………………………..(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on June 20, 2023)
Yeah – that title makes no sense to me either………..and it came about in an unusual manner (which is usual for me).
Last Saturday morning, I heard music outside. It sounded like a not-so-professional band that I may have heard before. The sound faded away and I quickly forgot about it.
But then it came back………..it was moving, but not like a marching band. I looked out every window in my apartment. Of course, I saw something through the very last window – actually the tail end of something a couple of blocks away.
There seemed to be many people involved and wearing colorful attire that I’ve seen before. If I’m right, I know where they’re heading.
I was dressed and out the door in two minutes. I saw the crowd across the park by my building and could hear them much louder now. They were headed exactly where I thought they would: Holy Trinity Church – the church of my childhood. This is the Ecuadorian sector of the parish that I usually see every New Year’s Day in a musical procession to celebrate Fiesta de la Virgen de la Nube (Our Lady of the Cloud) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Cloud
I don’t know what their processional route was, but in this PANO (click all to enlarge), they’re turning the corner to go one final block to the church, whose steeple you can see in the upper right:
I asked two policemen what this event was about, but they weren’t sure. I speed-walked down the street to get to the front of the procession to get a clue about what this was about……………nada:
When they started moving again, I saw what looked like a religious icon with the words “San Antonio” on it, but no Texans were depicted:
”San Antonio” is “Saint Anthony”, better known as St. Anthony of Padua. Also on the icon were the words “Danbury, Connecticut”, so I’m guessing a group from there was invited to join the festivities.
As usual, there are always people dressed in wildly-differing fashion. I won’t pretend to understand the symbolism, but it’s quite a sight to see:
I’ve shot a few “Our Lady of the Cloud” processions over the last dozen years or so (they go right past my apartment building), but I’ve never seen women walking along with what look like incense holders (I remember priests shaking these things in our direction during mass decades ago):
It got kind of smoky when they (and San Antonio) all stopped right where I was standing (there’s never a face mask around when you need one):
You KNOW deep down inside that there’s some heavy-duty religious symbolism behind these outfits, but good luck trying to figure THAT out on your own:
It appears that everyone in the procession is now waiting to get into the church (you can see San Antonio’s icon up by the front door):
So I jumped the line and got up on the top step of the church to get some shots I’ve never seen before in the three-quarters of a century since my baptism at this church:
Back down to the street to capture the whole scene, including the dancing symbolisms moving to the beat of the drummers on the left sidewalk:
Here’s 22 seconds of sound. Hit the “Watch on YouTube” box (it gives a more accurate view count):
A much-wider shot:
The church doors open:
The symbolisms wait for their turn to enter:
Looks like they’re getting in last:
Hey – that means they’ll be the first ones out and already dancing in the street when everyone else exits, right? I guess I’ll never know because I left after this shot.
What I should have done was sneak into the church after everyone was inside and try to get a wide PANO shot of the entire scene of all the outfits, flags, instrumentation and the dancing symbolisms. Who’s ever seen that before?
Maybe next year.
It’s now 3 days later. I’ve been trying to figure out the connection between St. Anthony and Ecuador. I understand the Our Lady of the Cloud story, but not this one. I even called the church’s rectory…………twice……..AND St Anthony’s in Danbury CT, but no one seems to know.
SURELY there would be a story online, right?
Nada………….except for this:
Not exactly a reason for a religious procession with dancing symbolisms, is it?
Maybe one of my Ecuadorian readers will post the answer below……………(and maybe the sun will turn purple).
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