Seville hosts the largest Semana Santa celebration in all of
Spain, attracting people to come see from all over the world. The streets are filled and it’s seemingly
impossible to go about one’s day-to-day activities. Charo and I headed to her beach house near
Cadiz to escape the chaos for a few days.
The forecast predicted rain, and we knew the festivities were going to
be cancelled and we would have better luck coming back to Seville for the end
of the week.
As we had predicted, the sun followed us to Cadiz leaving
nothing but rain in Sevilla.
Unfortunately, the festivals were cancelled in the city, but we were
happy to have nice weather to relax on the beach. Charo’s beach apartment is right on the shore
and has a beautiful view of the ocean.
It was the perfect location for some time away from the hustle and
bustle of Seville. Although it was too
cold to swim, I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach reading and
listening to music. I can’t imagine a
better way to have spent my week off.
Charo introduced me to her friends who also live in the Port
and they were all very friendly to me.
We went out to lunch together a few times and they ordered me typical
sea food like gambas (“shrimp”). Per usual, the food was delicious!
Charo and her friends also taught me how to dance flamenco. It is a lot harder than it looks!
To foreigners, the sight of a cofradía may be alarming at
first because the outfits worn by participants resemble those worn by the Ku
Klux Klan. However, the “nazarenos”,
religious outfits, were designed before the start of the KKK and the cofradías have
neither affiliation nor history of affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. At first, it was difficult for me to
understand why the nazarenos are worn. I
have since learned that the hooded robes are worn to disguise the participants,
many of who are participating to serve penance.
As anonymous figures, only God can know who they are and they will not
receive any other form of praise or congratulations for participating. Many participants are very serious about
staying anonymous and will not remove their caps from the time they leave their
house headed for the church to the time they return at the end of the ceremony.
The cofradias do a great job incorporating children into the
ceremony. Since the costumes can be frightening,
each member carries with him caramelos (“candies”) to hand out to the
children. The children also collect wax
from the candles to make their own souvenir balls. It seemed like a lot of fun!
Semana Santa was a very cultural experience for me. The ceremony in Seville was unlike anything I
have ever experienced before and the unique ambiance is hard to describe in
words.
I also had the opportunity to attend mass at the Cathedral
for both Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I went to mass on Sunday with my friend,
Emma. After the ceremony, we treated
ourselves to an Easter brunch of coffee and torjillas, the typical French-toast-like
treat of Semana Santa. We had fun
spending the morning together, wondering what our families were up to back in
the States.
That afternoon, I took a long siesta since there wasn’t much
going on. Charo woke me up with a
surprise merienda (“snack”) and we ate pancakes together! It was a lot of fun and I was so excited she
had made me a little something for Easter.
We spent the afternoon together, laughing and sharing stories. Like always, we had a lot of fun together.
Once again, a great blog Kelly!!!
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