SEMANA SANCTA IN LARANTUKA

Every year, about one week before Easter celebration, Catholics in Larantuka carry out the Semana Santa tradition, which has been going on for more than five centuries, since the Portuguese spread Catholicism and trade sandalwood in the Nusa Tenggara Islands.

Semana Santa is derived from the words semana (pekan) and santa (suci), which means holy week starting from Ash Wednesday, White Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday Celebration.

Until now, the Semana Santa procession has become the annual agenda of the East Flores regional government as a spiritual tour in attracting both

domestic and foreign tourists. On the day of being shackled (trewa), local Catholics began to gather in the chapels that were there to pray in memory of the story of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus was finally captured and then crucified by Roman soldiers. At the time of Trewa Wednesday, the city of Reinha Rosari Larantuka turned into a city of mourning, immersed in solemnity and reflection on purification of the soul to the eternal Good Friday stage.

On Thursday Thursday afternoon, the local congregation began the Tikam Turo ceremony, which was to prepare the procession route by planting candles along the road that became the route for the Good Friday procession.

In the Lord Ma’s Chapel, the statue of the Virgin Mary who had been sealed in a coffin for a full year, must be opened with care by the Conferia (an organization in the church) who was appointed by oath.

The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then taken and bathed by the appointed officer. After that, the statue of the Virgin Mary protector of the City of Reinha Rosari Larantuka was then worn in mourning clothes (a piece of black or purple cloth, or a blue velvet coat).

At the height of the ritual of Sesta Vera or Good Friday, the door of the chapel of Mr. Ma and Tuan Ana (Statue of Our Lady and Statue of Jesus) was opened to the public.

The procession begins with a procession of boats and dozens and even hundreds of motorboats to deliver Tuan Menino (Statue of Jesus) from the Captains of Menino (Sau City) to the Sirih Tree Chapel in Pante Kuce, in front of the ing’s palace of Larantuka.

This celebration gave a strong impression that the center of the ritual was to Jesus Christ because of long torture until he died on the cross witnessed by Mary, his biological mother (Mater Dolorosa).

According to legend, the statue of Tuan Ma was found by a man on Larantuka Beach about 500 years ago. He then handed the statue to Raja Larantuka.

For more than four centuries, this region inherited Catholicism which was quite strong in the archipelago through the role of missionaries, fraternity of the common people (Confreria), Semana Tribe, Kakang Lewo Pulo Tribe and Pou Tribe (Lema) in the growth of Catholicism in the Larantuka region.