Easter

The penitent’s tunic and what each brotherhood asks for:

there is no single Holy Week uniform, so buy for the procession you carry in. Purple with black is the long-standing combination for San José and La Merced, purple with white belongs to Candelaria, and plain black is worn on Good Friday, when the entombed Christ is carried. Some processions ask only for the tunic and a belt; others want the full set with hood, short shoulder cape, sash or long cape. A woman’s tunic is cut differently from a man’s, and the women who carry the Virgin dress in black, many with a lace veil and gloves. A Roman soldier’s costume made for a procession is Holy Week kit; one for a party goes under Halloween. Fabric decides how long a tunic lasts. Silk and cotton wear best and cost most; satin, rayon and gabardine are the cheaper end. Look for double seams finished on an overlock, and pass on cloth so thin it stretches without being stretch fabric, because that is the first to tear.

Street carpet materials that hold up to wind and rain:

dyed sawdust is still the base of most carpets and the cheapest way to cover a length of road, but the wind lifts it. Coarser wood shavings have taken over much of the work because they stay put and keep their shape when wet. Dyed coarse salt has to rest a day or two after colouring or the colour rubs off, and marble dust is what portrait-style carpets rely on for fine detail. The stencils that shape each figure used to be wood or cardboard that swelled after one damp night; varnished cardboard lasts several seasons, and CNC-cut PVC does not warp at all. Clay and carved figures for the December nativity scene are a different trade, under Christmas.

What a tunic costs once the cape and embroidery go on:

a plain purple or black tunic starts around Q100 and rarely passes Q350, while a complete uniform with embroidery and cape can run well past Q3,000. Second-hand, wear barely moves the price, because a tunic comes out of the wardrobe a handful of days a year. What moves it is length, and whether it still matches the uniform its brotherhood uses. An embroidered set in the right colours for a well-known procession holds its value far better than a plain tunic anyone can have made.

Hems, sun marks and warped stencils:

try a tunic on before you pay. One that ends at the knee is the classic surprise of the first Sunday of Lent. Check buttons, hooks and fringes, and look over purple cloth for pale blotches: a tunic dried in the sun marks easily, and a shiny patch means it was ironed too hot. Neither is easy to fix. With stencils, ask what they are made of. Unvarnished cardboard with soft edges or lifting layers has had its last season, and a warped stencil leaves a blurred figure on the street. If someone offers last year’s sawdust or shavings, open the sack and check it stayed dry, since damp material clumps and will not spread evenly through a stencil.

A tunic or a box of stencils passed on to next year’s bearers:

the people looking are men and women who have just been given their turn to carry and need the uniform to go with it, so list well before Lent rather than in Holy Week. Give the length from shoulder to hem, the chest width, the fabric and the colours, and say which brotherhood’s uniform it matches. Photograph it on a hanger, front and back, with any embroidery close up, and list what comes with it: belt, shoulder cape, hood, gloves. For stencils, say whether they are cardboard or PVC, varnished or not, and how many pieces make up the full design. A buyer coming to try a tunic on will want to do it in the shoes they carry in, so the hem can be judged where it will actually fall.