Semana Santa!

Semana Santa is holy week, the week before Easter. Sevilla has some of the biggest and most important celebrations in Spain. The week revolves around processions: each participating church has one procession one day during Semana Santa. The processions start and end from their individual churches, but all of them at some point pass through La Campana, down Calle Sierpes, along the town hall, and in and out of the cathedral. It takes around 2 hours to see an entire procession - there are multiple bands, hundreds of nazarenos (church members wearing robes and pointed hat/mask), and the main attraction are the pasos (large floats), typically one with a statue of Jesus and one with the Virgin. The pasos are super heavy and are carried by around 40 costaleros, men who walk underneath the paso and support it on the back of their neck. The pasos can be centuries old and have a lot of gold and silver. Because of this, if it rains at all, the processions are simply cancelled. Lots of people in Sevilla look forward to their church's procession ALL year, so if it rains, it can be pretty devastating.

Luckily it hasn't been too rainy so far! On Sunday, the official beginning of Semana Santa, I saw one ENTIRE procession. The church is in the neighborhood where I live, and I pass by this church several times a week, so I feel slightly more allegiance to this procession than to others! My friends and I got lucky and were standing right in the front. Here are a few pictures from this procession:

Nazarenos in the procession of the Hermandad La Estrella

Here comes Jesus!

Nazarenos and costaleros

On Monday I went with friends to the center of the city - near the cathedral and the town hall - where the crowds are the biggest, and saw parts of a couple of processions. It was great experiencing the atmosphere there, but we couldn't see as well since a lot of the path is blocked from view by the seats that people pay for to watch the processions from.

Procession of Hermandad San Gonzalo on the route to the cathedral

Paso with statue of Jesus

Tuesday evening it was raining, so there was absolutely NOTHING in the way of processions. That night, though, I went with a friend to one of the most famous dessert/pastry shops in Sevilla, and we tried torrijas, the typical dessert of Semana Santa in Sevilla. Torrijas are a slice of bread dipped in eggs and milk or wine, fried and with sugar or honey on top. They were delicious but quite possibly the most empalagoso (overly sweet) dessert I've ever tried!

Trying torrijas with friends

I first learned about Semana Santa in high school in Spanish class, and I've been hearing about it ever since I got here this fall, since it's such a big deal here. I've actually only talked to one person my age who says they like Semana Santa in Sevilla - others I've talked to say it's too much, or that they prefer Semana Santa in their own town, or that they see it as hypocritical (not going to church all year and then going all out for Semana Santa).

In any case, I loved finally experiencing Semana Santa in person and getting to see little things like how some of the toddler-age nazarenos hand out candy to kids in the crowds and how kids in the crowd have balls of wax that they form by collecting dripping wax from the candles of the passing nazarenos; seeing the pasos stop and the costaleros changing out and seeing a mom walking with her kid-nazareno give him a sandwich during the procession (they can last up to 14 hours!). Also, I was actually less creeped out than I thought I would be by the nazarenos - they do look like the KKK, but once I saw them up close, walking on the streets, and putting on their robes, it is clear how they are normal people underneath!