Easter

Whole chiverre or a jar of sweet preserve:

the gourd is harvested just before Holy Week and looks like a small watermelon, and its hard shell means an unopened one kept somewhere dry lasts for months. Opening it is the real work. Many families char the shell over a flame and crack it with a hammer, pull out the white strands, dry them and cook them down slowly with unrefined cane sugar. The sweet preserve fills empanadas and cajetas all week, and cooks who make a big batch often pass on the rest in jars. At a farmers’ market a whole chiverre goes for around ₡5,000, and jarred chiverre preserve starts near ₡1,000 for a small jar. One gourd makes far more preserve than that jar holds, so buying whole is much the cheaper route; what the jar price pays for is the afternoon of charring, cracking and stirring that somebody else has already done.

Roman soldiers and Magdalenes in the Good Friday procession:

in San Joaquín de Flores, Mercedes Norte and San Rafael de Oreamuno the Passion is acted out in the street, and the cast is large: Roman soldiers, Pilate, the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, angels and the apostles. Many costumes are sewn at home to a pattern taken from one of the wearer’s own garments, and handed on once a child outgrows the angel’s wings. The Roman soldier is the most involved outfit, with tunic, cape, belt, breastplate, helmet and lance, and the helmet and breastplate are the pieces that break or go missing. Images for a home altar, the Nazareno or the Dolorosa, change hands too, as does the wooden cross with its purple cloth. Nativity figures have their own place under Christmas, and a spare Roman helmet can do a second turn as a costume under Halloween.

Baskets and plastic eggs for Easter Sunday:

the Sunday side is lighter and mostly for children: woven baskets, fillable plastic eggs and bunny ears. Open a few eggs from any bag, since the small tab joining the halves is what snaps. For homemade chocolate eggs, rigid, thick moulds keep their shine for years, while thin, bendy sheets crease after one season.

How a used tunic, a dressed image or a jar of sweet preserve gives itself away:

purple and red satin fades in the sun of a long procession and the hem drags on the street, so check the hem and underarm seams, and compare the colour inside a fold with the outside. Try the helmet on; a missing chinstrap or a cracked brim is common. Many images of the Nazareno are dressed figures, with a cloth robe over a carved body, so ask whether the robe comes with it and look closely at the hands, which carry the cross and take the knocks. A whole chiverre should be hard all the way round, with no soft or damp patch, and the green shell turns streaked with yellow as it ripens. Homemade chiverre preserve should arrive sealed, with the date it was made written on the jar; once a jar has been opened, leave it.

Roman tunics, images and whole chiverres in the weeks of Lent:

they all sell against the same deadline. Parish groups fit their cast weeks before Domingo de Ramos and cooks want their gourds before the week itself, so list in the first weeks of Cuaresma; after Easter Sunday the buyers are gone until next year. For a costume, name the character, give chest, length and the wearer’s height, and lay out every piece. For an image, give the height, the material and whether it is a dressed figure, with photos of the face and hands. Whoever comes for a whole chiverre will want to knock on it and turn it over looking for soft spots, so keep it whole until they arrive: a gourd that has been opened will not wait for a second buyer.