Taxco : Los penitentes de la Semana Santa

For one week each year, groups of penitent citizens walk in processions night and day on the steep streets of Taxco in the state of Guerrero.

Self-inflicting a sinner’s penitence, they drag themselves on their knees, whip themselves bloody or carry heavy bundles of spiny branches in the name of their faith. Suffering anonymously while hidden behind black hoods, they are accompanied by hundreds of people carrying their parish’s statues of Christ or the Virgin Mary. It’s truly a privilege to share in the incredible fervor that floods this 500-year-old colonial town during this sacred spring holiday.