In Valparaíso, Chile, the community comes together on the last day of Holy Week to celebrate the Quema (Burn), where people gather together to read out the bad acts that have taken place during the year and to symbolically cleanse and remove them by fire.
I learned about the Quema (Burn), which is when the community of Valparaíso gets together in one of the main plazas to light a large figure on fire.This tradition takes place on the last day of Semana Santa (Holy Week), near the holiday Pascua (Easter).
The community gathers around to read a testament which consists of all of the "bad" acts commited by family and friends throughout the year. Many times, people will add to the testament "bad" acts that are jokes, such as not doing enough dishes at home. Others add more serious things to the testament. After the bad" acts on the testament are read, the figure is burned and people dance on each side of the fire. There are people dressed in the color red to represent the "bad" acts and people in white to represent the "good" acts that are to come.
