New Mexican, Penitente’s Personal Whip

New Mexico

early 20th Century | Yucca | Item 1568

This whip, made of yucca fibers, would have been used as a Penitente’s personal whip to apply self flagellation. The self flagellation is used during a heightened period of rituals (Lent, processions during Holy Week) in a reenactment of the crucifixition of Christ.

As written by Wikipedia:

Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno (Spanish: ‘The Brothers of the Pious Fraternity of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene’), also known as Los Penitentes, Los Hermanos, the Brotherhood of our Father Jesus of Nazareth and the Penitente Brotherhood, is a lay confraternity of Spanish-American Catholic men active in Northern and Central New Mexico and southern Colorado. They maintain religious meeting buildings, which are not formal churches, called moradas.