Semana Santa

Hello Everyone!

It was many people's spring break this week. I hope you enjoyed your break and got to relax! Here in Sevilla I also had the week off, and during that time I got to fully enjoy the spectacle that is Semana Santa, or Holy Week.

Spain, especially Andalucía, is famous around the world for its Holy Week traditions, which are quite beautiful and elaborate. The most well known tradition is the procession of pasos throughout the streets. Pasos are statues depicting either various scenes of the life of Jesus that occur between Palm Sunday and Easter, or representations of the Virgin Mary. Many of these statues are hundreds of years old, which only makes it more impressive that they are paraded around the city. In Seville these processions are organized by various Christian confraternities, with each fraternity organizing the procession of the statue from their respective church. On average there were about 8 processions a day, with the final ones ending on Holy Saturday.

Here are photos of a procession of the "Hermandad de Las Cigarreras," whose procession went right in front of my apartment on Holy Thursday. There are various parts to a procession so I'll talk a little bit about each one:

Marching Bands!

While some processions are completely silent, most have 2 or 3 marching bands. The music makes the spectacle all the more breathtaking.

Nazarenos

These men in the pointed caps and gowns are called nazarenos. They usually start off a procession. At night, many carry lit candles, and they process in complete silence. As an American, it was a little difficult to look at these robes and not be reminded of a dark period of our own history, but here in Spain these caps and robes are simply religious garments.

Nazareno giving caramels

For little kids, the nazarenos can be kind of intimidating, so they often give sweets to the kids watching. You could hear the kids chant "Nazareeeenoo, dame un carameeeeelo," "Mr Nazareno, give me a caramel!" It was quite adorable.

El Cristo

The first paso of a procession is always Christ. This particular paso was of Christ being taken by the Romans. The people carrying the statue, called costaleros, are completely hidden underneath the platform that it is resting on. They statues weigh a ton; each costalero has to carry about 150-160 pounds. They carry it not with their heads, but they rest the statue on the nape of their neck. If that seems a bit painful to you, that is right. For many costaleros, it is an honor to be able to carry the statue of Jesus, and as Jesus struggled while carrying the cross, the costaleros seek to make this procession a physical struggle and challenge.  

El Paso

The costaleros stopped to rest right in front of where I was standing, so I got to snap some pretty sweet pics. You can see how elaborate and heavy these things are. At night, the candles are lit. When the costaleros get up, they jump to their feet and the whole paso kind of jumps up a little bit. I still don't understand why they do it that way, but it's really impressive.

Un Penitente

After the Cristo, comes a wave of penitentes. These people carry crosses for a variety of reasons. Some wish to be forgiven of a sin (hence penitent as the root word), others hope that their prayers will be heard, and others are making certain promises to God. 

La Virgen

After another wave of nazarenos, comes the paso of La Virgen. Practically every little neighborhood of Sevilla has their own representation of the Virgen Mary, and the people are very devoted to it. Most Virgens have tears running down their face, representing the anguish of seeing Christ crucified. La Virgen is the final part of the procession, which can last anywhere from 4-12 hours. Every procession leaves its church and parades around its neighborhood before making it's way to the Cathedral of the Seville. The procession laps around the cathedral and then heads back to its church. Depending on where you are in the city, that can take quite some time.

So I have been trying for an hour to put videos of the processions on this post but they are failing to upload. Hopefully I can add them later or put them on my facebook! The videos give you a real feel for the procession with the music, and candles and nazarenos.

Apart from the pasos, the next best thing about Semana Santa was the food. Little food booths sprung up all over Seville selling candy and treats to eat as you watched the processions. At home, my host mom Macarena made torrijas. Think mini french toast, but the bread is soaked in wine and honey before being dipped in sugar and then fried. The torrijas definitely won out as my favorite treat of the week.

Macarena's torrijas

Funnily enough, Easter Sunday is rather anticlimactic. There are no processions. Many people attend mass, but other than that there are not a whole lot of other festivities. There was no traditional Easter food. It was alright though, the week more than made up for any Easter traditions that I missed back home.

And that's about all I have on Semana Santa! It was quite the week. This week is my final "chill" week before start a whirlwind month of weekend travel frenzy. Lisbon, Copenhagen, London, and Paris are all in my future! I'm still not sure sometimes that this is real life. I will try to stay up to date with the blog, but we'll see how it goes. Until then, hasta luego!