Video shows Palm Sunday parade in Guatemala, not 'Easter celebration in Saudi Arabia'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 14, 2023 at 06:35
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A video of a parade featuring an image of Jesus Christ carrying the cross has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook and YouTube in posts that falsely claim it shows an Easter celebration in Saudi Arabia in 2023. The clip was actually taken during a Palm Sunday procession in Guatemala in early April 2023.

The video was shared here on Facebook on April 9, 2023, on Easter Sunday.

"Easter celebration in Saudi Arabia in 2023," reads the Indonesian-language caption.

The one-minute and 30-second clip shows a crowd taking part in a procession with a statue of Christ an ornate palanquin.

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on June 10, 2023

The same video has been viewed more than 3,800 times after it was shared with a similar claim elsewhere on Facebook here and on YouTube here and here.

However, the claim that the video shows an Easter celebration in Saudi Arabia is false.

Saudi Arabia -- long associated with a rigid strain of Islam known as Wahhabism -- prohibits public worship by and display of non-Muslim faiths (archived link).

A reverse image search on Google found a longer video was posted on a Spanish-language YouTube channel on April 2, 2023 (archived link).

Translated to English, the video's Spanish-language title reads: "Funeral parade of Jesus Nazareno de la Merced, Iglesia de la Merced, Palm Sunday 2023".

Iglesia de la Merced is a church located in the city of Antigua, Guatemala, a Christian-majority country in Central America (archived links here and here).

Jesus Nazareno de la Merced refers to the iconic image of Jesus that belongs to the church (archived links here and here). Every year, the statue is paraded from twice during the Holy Week: on Palm Sunday, which fell on April 2 in 2023, and Good Friday.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the misleading post (left) and the genuine YouTube video (right), with corresponding features marked by AFP:

Screenshot comparison between the video in the misleading post (left) and the genuineYouTube video (right)

Another video, which also captures the procession of the same statue and people wearing the same clothing, was posted on a YouTube channel called "Holy Week in Guatemala" on April 3, 2023 (archived link).

According to the clip's Spanish-language title, it shows the parade of the statue Jesus Nazareno de la Merced from Iglesia de la Merced in Antigua, on Palm Sunday (archived link).

Guatemala's Holy Week festival stretches over six weeks, reaching a fever pitch at Easter as the Central American country is transformed by extravagant processions, vigils, and the laying of brightly coloured carpets throughout the streets, AFP reported.

AFP's photos of Jesus Nazareno de la Merced -- or Jesus of Nazareth of Humility -- being paraded in Antigua on Good Friday on April 6, 2023, can be seen here, here and here.

Using Google Maps, AFP pinpointed the location of the procession at Antigua Guatemala Central Park (archived link).

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