Tanarandy

Tañarandy is a small settlement outside San Ignacio Guazú where the artist Koki Ruiz reworked the local Holy Week observance from the 1990s into something that now draws tens of thousands: on Good Friday evening a procession walks a rural lane lit by thousands of candles set in halved oranges and by lamps, past large tableaux vivants staged in the fields recreating paintings from the European canon, the Last Supper and others, performed by villagers holding position in silence. The name is usually glossed from Guarani as the land of the unredeemed. It runs once a year and the lane and the village are otherwise ordinary rural Misiones.

What to look for

• The candle-lit lane - the thousands of lights set along the procession route.
• The tableaux vivants - the staged recreations of paintings in the fields.
• The Good Friday procession - the walk through the lit lane.
• The rural setting - the fields and hamlet the event takes place in.

When to go

Good Friday evening only; the date moves with Easter. Arrive well before dark to get along the lane. Outside Holy Week there is nothing to see in the village.

Before you go

The event runs one evening a year and nothing happens there otherwise. Crowds are very large for a rural lane and parking and movement are difficult. Accommodation in San Ignacio fills for the weekend. It is a religious observance, not a performance.

Nearby

San Ignacio Guazu lies close; Santa Maria de Fe is northeast.