Semana Santa

The population of Seville seems to double or even triple during April because of the festivals that make the city famous and that I have been anxiously waiting for all semester.  The month starts with Semana Santa (“holy week”),a celebration of the resurrection of Christ Jesus, and ends with La Feria, a celebration of the arrival of spring.

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!

On Friday morning we drove back to Seville for the celebrations of Semana Santa.  Every day during Semana Santa, there are various processions dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Jesus.  Each procession is organized by separate cofradías (religious fraternities) and marched from their prospective church to the cathedral and back to their church.  Each cofradía carries a unique paso (or float) during the entire procession, which can last up to thirteen hours.  The floats carry old statues of various religious figures, some of which date back to the 17^th century.  The processions pass by very slowly because the floats are difficult to carry and because there are so many participants.  Both men and women of all ages can participate; even children are encouraged to join in!

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.