Senor de los Milagros
On Saturday we witnessed the first day of the purple procession.
For the whole month of October followers of the Senor de los Milagros
wear Purple daily.
On Saturday whilst doing our christmas shopping in the
blazing hot sun ( we hope to send some presesnts home
with a friend who returns to the UK soon) lots of the roads were blocked off.
Large buildings in the Plaza de Armas were also draped in purple and there
were impressive pictures made out of flower petals on the pavements.
People wearing purple dresses and purple robes crowded the plaza, people were selling purple candles ,purple balloons,rosaries and purple cards with photos of the Senor de los Milagros and every time we asked someone when the parade was starting we were told in half an hour, 1 hr and 15 mins later it actually did start.
Loud sombre music blared out over the loud speakers and the purple crowd slowly marched singing hymns and carrying candles whilst other people dressed in purple continued to shout out selling their purple merchandise.
The story goes that a picture of Jesus painted on a wall survived 2 earthquakes when the rest of the building collapsed and also when someone was ordered to paint over the painting he too collapsed in front of the picture so it is said to have survived 3 miracles, hence the name Lord of the miracles. A photograph of the picture is carried in processions all over Peru during the month of October and during the parade yelllow petals were showered down from the balconies above.