Old video of the Holy Week celebration in Guatemala shared as Jesus Christ celebration in the United Arab Emirates

The viral video shows a Palm Sunday procession in Guatemala in early April 2023

Easter known as great example of pain and sacrifice, was recently celebrated by believers all across the world. Against this backdrop, a video showing a large procession featuring an image of Jesus Christ carrying the cross is going viral on social media with a claim that it shows a celebration of Jesus Christ in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Let’s check the truth.

Facebook Post |Archive link

Fact check

A Google reverse image search using the key frames of the video led us to 

a longer version of the viral video uploaded on a Spanish-language YouTube channel on 2 April, 2023. When 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, country in Central America. Jesus Nazareno de la Merced refers to the iconic image of Jesus that belongs to the church.  It is traditionally paraded during the holy week in Antigua, Guatemala. Holy Week in Guatemala is celebrated with street expressions of faith, called processions, usually organized by a “hermandad”. Each procession of Holy Week has processional floats and steps, which are often religious images of the Passion of Christ, or Marian images, although there are exceptions, like the allegorical steps of saints.

Antigua, Guatemala is home to the largest Easter celebration in the world in which the Passion, the Crucifix and the Resurrection of Jesus are commemorated. The procession is rooted in Andalusian tradition and was brought over by Spanish missionaries in the 16th Century. 

Archive link

Below you can see a comparison between the viral video and the original YouTube video with corresponding features marked.

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the viral video to be False.

The viral video shows a Palm Sunday procession in Guatemala in early April 2023. It is not recent and not from UAE.