It’s Holy Week: Watch out for pilgrims
To undertake a religious pilgrimage is to journey, to wander, to seek, but with a purpose in mind — to reach a sacred destination. And so it is every Holy Week in New Mexico, when tens of thousands walk to El Santuario de Chimayó.
Their reasons are as varied as the people making the journey. Some walk to ask a favor. Others in gratitude for past blessings. Others simply to tread the path their parents or grandparents did, carrying a tradition of faith on to the next generation. As they walk, some pray, contemplate their lives, dare to dream of possibilities or simply chat with each other during the long hours.
Some, we trust, pick up trash along the way to leave the path cleaner.
The tradition, essential to so many people, is made possible because of the wider community. Santa Fe County, the state of New Mexico, Rio Arriba County and private groups all work together to make the pilgrimage safe both for walkers and vehicles on the days and nights of the journey.
For pilgrims, the advice is to bring plenty of water, put on a hat, wear comfortable shoes and have reflective tape over your clothing to be more visible at night.
Walking 30 or 40 miles — depending on your starting point — is not for the faint of heart. For drivers, the key is to pay attention. Especially on dark nights, pilgrims will be vulnerable walking along roads and highways. Drivers must stay alert and be prepared to slow down.
Police and deputies from a number of agencies will be on hand to ensure public safety, with peak demand expected on Good Friday as thousands of people descend on the roads leading to the Santuario. A major route is U.S. 84/285, across N.M. 503 and up County Road 98; other pilgrims walk down the High Road from Taos or along N.M. 76 from Española. All roads leading to Chimayó will have walkers, so drivers must take care. Even along Interstate 25, don’t be surprised to see pedestrians by the highway — pilgrims journey from as far away as Albuquerque.
They come during the holiest of times for Christians the world over in a public display of faith to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the sorrow of Good Friday and the joy of Easter Sunday. They come to Chimayó because for centuries, it has been recognized as a holy place.
Before Christians, in the form of Roman Catholic missionaries, came to New Mexico, Pueblo people considered the area a place for healing. Hispano settlers shared that belief.
They become devoted to Our Lord of the Esquipulas, an image from an early colonial shrine in Guatemala where the Earth was said to be effective in curing illnesses. That image of Christ crucified was taken by Franciscan friars throughout Mexico and into New Mexico — and embraced in Chimayó, a place where the very earth was believed to ease illness and injury. Today, many pilgrims take with them bags of the healing dirt, carrying a blessing with them.
As the story goes, Don Bernardo Abeyta saw a light shining from the ground on Good Friday of 1810. Abeyta followed the light and found a crucifix in the dirt — he dug it out by hand — and took it to a nearby church, only to discover the crucifix back in the ground the next day. When that happened several more times, the people petitioned to have a church built, and so El Santuario de Chimayó was born.
During World War II, prisoners of war promised to walk to Chimayó in thanksgiving should they survive the horrors of captivity. And so they did, with a new tradition taking hold.
Today, tens of thousands of men, women and children still are walking to El Santuario. May they journey safely.