Wiktionary
n. A tall thin blade of hardened snow or ice, found closely spaced in large quantities at high altitudes.
Wikipedia
Penitentes, or nieves penitentes ( Spanish for " penitent-shaped snows"), are snow formations found at high altitudes. They take the form of elongated, thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced and pointing towards the general direction of the sun.
The name comes from the resemblance of a field of penitentes to a crowd of kneeling people doing penance. The formation evokes the tall, pointed habits and hoods worn by brothers of religious orders in the Processions of Penance during Spanish Holy Week. In particular the brothers' hats are tall, narrow, and white, with a pointed top.
These spires of snow and ice grow over all glaciated and snow-covered areas in the Dry Andes above . They range in size from a few centimetres to over .
Penitente or penitentes may refer to
- Penitente or penitent, any (typically Catholic) practitioner of ritual penance
- A member of the Penitente Brotherhood, a lay confraternity of Catholics in New Mexico
- A member of any historical penitent order
- Penitente (snow formation) or nieves penitentes, high-altitude snow formations that are hardened, elongated, closely spaced, and pointing towards the general direction of the sun
- Los Penitentes (Argentina), a ski resort
- The Penitentes, a lost 1915 silent film drama directed by Jack Conway and starring Orrin Johnson and Seena Owen.
Usage examples of "penitente".
I recalled being in the store, remembered the Penitente case and Paul and Eleanor-and my errand for Juan.
And I told him that she and Paul had been in the store, apparently to return the Penitente things to their display case, and that I had been trying to escape without their discovering me when I was struck.
She seemed to have more concern about the fact that Eleanor had coaxed Paul into going to the store at that hour to restore the Penitente display, and I knew that she was worried about her husband.
Then, chanting, the penitente Brothers had arrived to lead the people to the chapel, their singing overpowering every other sound.
Prayer halls and meeting places for the Penitente Brotherhood, the moradas were in constant use during this, Holy Week.
There have been enough idiots in the past who twisted penitente worship into all sorts of lurid tales.
I ever tell you about that candy striper that was murdered up at that old Penitente church back in forty-two?
New Mexico, where he had been corrupted by the Penitente movement, that strange, John-the-Baptist-type of desert fanaticism in which devout members pierced their backs with cactus thorns to display their penitence, and when he sponsored such carryings-on, the respectable Christians of northern Colorado made it clear that they would not tolerate such behavior.
Sheriff Bogardus, nor was Tranquilino disposed toward the Penitente movement, so there was no danger of his being clubbed by the deputies.
Other than the change from Spanish priests to Mexican priests and the resulting outlawry of the Penitente sect of Catholicism, New Mexico hardly noticed the change from Spanish to Mexican governors.
As he narrowed his eyes to peer into the distance, the watcher made out the first penitentes topping the hill.
Talpa, on the south side of Taos, some thirty miles from that La Mesa morada, Christina Garcia y Grant could faintly hear a different group of penitentes singing their hymns.
Grandmama had called them to come quick to the window to see the penitentes pass by.
In Taos, a member of the penitentes, a ritual torture society, has been arrested for the murder of a fellow penitente.
The other night, on the news, the reporter called the penitentes a ritual torture society!