Larantuka Holy Week

Larantuka at the eastern end of Flores was a Portuguese trading post and mission from the sixteenth century, and when the Portuguese withdrew the community kept the practice, developing a form of Catholicism with Portuguese-derived confraternities, prayers still sung in a Portuguese-influenced liturgical language, and a devotion centred on two statues, Tuan Ma - the Mother - and Tuan Ana, kept veiled in chapels through the year and unveiled only for Holy Week. Semana Santa here runs several days: the statues are washed and reveiled, chapels along the route are opened, and on Good Friday night a procession carries them through the town by candlelight along the harbour, with tens of thousands attending, many arriving by boat from the surrounding islands.

What you actually see

• Statues unveiled once a year - Tuan Ma and Tuan Ana shown only in Holy Week.
• A candlelit night procession - Good Friday through the town and along the harbour.
• Portuguese-descended practice - confraternities and a liturgy carried since the mission.
• Arrivals by boat - people coming in from the surrounding islands for the week.

When to go

Holy Week, in March or April. Three days.

Honest expectations

Accommodation in Larantuka is fully booked months ahead for Holy Week. It is a religious observance, not a spectacle - dress and behave accordingly. Crowds are very large and it runs late.

Nearby

Maumere is west; Adonara and Lembata are across the strait.