12 Abril
This past week, Sevilla celebrated Semana Santa (Holy Week). Each church has 2 pasos (like floats, except they are carried by men called costaleros), usually one depicting a scene from the Passion of Christ and another one with a representation of the Virgen Mary. The pasos are beautiful, which detailed figures and decorated with candles and fresh flowers. Many people walk along with the pasos on the procession from the church, to the cathedral, then back again. They are called Nazarenos (like Nazareth) and they carry candles and wear long robes with pointed hoods (not the KKK!). Each hermandad (brotherhood that organizes the processions of the church) has their own signature colors and symbols. The more serious ones wear all black and are silent, while others have colors like purple or red. There are also people in robes carrying wooden crosses, called penitents. Some of them even go without shoes, walking barefoot on the streets for hours (some of the processions can take up to 13 hours because they move so slow!). There are also priests and other members of the clergy, holding candles and burning incense. The streets smell SO good from the incense and the fresh flowers! Behind each paso is a band, playing specific marches for either Jesus or La Virgen, although certain hermandades have no band and prefer silence or singing. The processions are held all through the week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. The most famous ones are Thursday evening into Friday morning, called the madrugada – some people stay up all night watching the procession and they have box seats in front of the cathedral that go for around 100 euro a person! Most of them take a very long time because the pasos are so heavy and the costaleros put them down every so often to rest or to switch off people. My favorite part is watching the costaleros lift the paso up again after they’ve put it down – the whole paso pops up and you feel like Jesus or Mary is going to topple over!
Wednesday night SJ and I met up with the family of Pedro and Maria (the kids I teach English to) so we could see a few of the pasos. There were SO many people in Sevilla, it took us so long to get there because a lot of the buses weren’t running and it’s very hard to get somewhere when there are so many pasos happening at the same time and blocking the roads! The kids’ father, José, was very nice and helpful and would bring SJ and I right up to the paso to get a good view and take some pictures. It was very overwhelming at first since we still didn’t really know what to expect from Semana Santa. And the kids were so cute and were very excited that I was there – I took a few pictures of them so everyone can see how cute they are! All the little kids collect the wax from the candles of the nazarenos and save the balls so they can add to them every year. That was very fun and a good introduction to the week because the parents were very good about explaining stuff to us – plus with the kids, we obviously weren’t out too late which was good because SJ and I were both tired from our traveling. It took us a very long time to get home though because of all the people in the streets – we couldn’t even get through on our bikes!
Thursday, SJ and I went to La Macarena, a famous church right near our house, to see the pasos before they left the church. The church itself is gorgeous and La Virgen de la Macarena was one of my favorites (definitely check out the pictures for all of these things I’m explaining, it’s much easier to understand if you see them!). It was also a lot easier to see and take pictures of them while they were sitting in the church versus being carried through the streets! Everyone is supposed to wear black on Thursday, into Friday, because that’s the night of Jesus’ death and the traditional dress of the women is so beautiful – they wear black dresses with these amazing black lace veils. I sneakily took a few pictures of them because they all looked so pretty!
Thursday night, we met up with one of SJ’s friends from Sevilla, José (another José!) so he could show us some of the pasos. One the way there we ran into a silent paso as it was returning to its church – they actually had to lower Jesus and the cross to fit it into the doorway! There were also 2 people who sang a specific type of song (I can’t remember the name) that’s actually a prayer, it was very eerie with the silence and Jesus up on the cross. When we met her friend, he knew a ton about Semana Santa and loves seeing all of the cofradias (processions) so he took us around to see a bunch of different ones. I think that’s the best way to see them – instead of sitting in one place waiting for them to come by, which takes a long time and gets very boring, it’s better to walk to see one paso and then leaving to go to another street to see a different one (there were a lot going on at once, especially Thursday night). That way you get to see a bunch of them but don’t get bored (or too cold!) sitting in one spot. José also took us into his church to see his pasos, which had already gone out on Palm Sunday. He actually let us go under one, where the costaleros carry it, which was really cool! His paso needed almost 100 men to carry it! I still can’t believe they are carried, they are so big and heavy! We used to see the costaleros practicing all the time near the Macarena – it freaked us out the first time because we had no idea what it was! José also has a palco (box seats) for La Madrugada, so he bribed the ticket guards with coffees and let us in to see the first paso! Neither SJ nor I wanted to stay up all night to see them, but it was really cool to get to see the first one, especially under the full moon!
Friday during the day Carmen (she thinks watching the pasos is super boring and hates how busy the city gets) took SJ and I to the beach in Portugal! It’s only about an hour drive and you don’t need passports or anything – when you cross the border all you see is a big sign saying Welcome to Portugal! (almost like you’re crossing a state border in the US!). Unfortunately it was very windy so it wasn’t the best beach day (I swear I still have sand in my hair!) but the beach was gorgeous and I managed to get a little sun. We also had lunch at a nice restaurant and got some ice cream and it was fun to hang out with Carmen. And now I’ve been to Portugal! I still can’t believe how easy and spontaneous it was to just drive into a completely different country!
Friday night I decided to go see another paso that Carmen had been talking about, portraying the last breath of Jesus. Apparently it is one of the oldest (and most famous) ones in Sevilla and rarely even goes out on procession because they don’t want it to be damaged by bad weather (apparently it almost always rains on Good Friday so sometimes this paso goes 6 or 7 years without making an appearance!) I went down to the Triana bridge to wait for it, which was beautiful at night, especially when they shut the streetlights off. In the background I could see not only the full moon reflecting over the river, but all of the sights Sevilla is famous for – La Giralda, La Maestranza (bull fighting ring), El Torre de Oro, and La Plaza de Espana—all lit up! It was a breathtaking sight, especially when the nazarenos began walking by with the candles. The actual paso was beautiful, Jesus was very well sculpted (As are most of the pasos) and it was very awesome in the candlelight and silence. The costaleros put the paso down right in front of me so I was able to admire it longer and take some really good pictures. Then I walked down to see La Virgen and headed back home, very glad that I went out to see it! That may have been my favorite cofradia in terms of the whole atmosphere.
Easter Sunday I got up and went to church in the morning at a little church near my house. I got there early because I thought there may be a lot of people but I was like the 6th person in the church! It wasn’t as ornately decorated as some that I’ve seen, such as La Macarena, but it was decorated beautifully. The altar had tiles from the floor to about waste height with beautiful mosaics and there was an amazing sculpture of Jesus, as well as a saint on either side of him and an angel on each corner. There were also wonderful flowers and plants placed all around the altar. The mass was very quick because there was no music and not many people. It was obviously all in Spanish, which was interesting. I was able to understand the readings and the homily fairly well, but I was very lost on all the prayers! I alternated between making something up in Spanish, saying something in English (the right thing if I could figure it out, or just saying some sort of prayer, like the Our Father), or not saying anything at all. I did figure out El Padre, el Hijo, y el Espiritu Santo! I enjoyed it though and I’m glad I went. That afternoon SJ, Karen, and I went to see the last paso of the week, the resurrection (I wish I could remember all the names of the pasos and the hermandades – most of the sevillanos are able to name them if you describe them!). It was very hot and there were a lot of people, but it was a beautiful paso and the costaleros did an amazing job navigating it into the church – they had to turn the paso around and then walk backwards! La Virgen was also very pretty, with gorgeous lace and tons of flowers. My favorite part was when the people watching from their balconies through tons of rose petals down onto the paso as it passed by – it was a shower of red and white and it was so beautiful to watch. I would have loved to be standing underneath the balcony! Other people tossed full roses down onto her, trying to land them on the top of the paso.
I really enjoyed Semana Santa in Sevilla, especially because I wasn’t really sure what to expect! I think I got a very good mix of experiences with it, from day to night, little kids, to friends, to alone – I definitely enjoyed being a part of it and I’m so glad I got to see it. I’m going to miss the smell of incense, candles, and flowers in the streets – although I won’t miss the crazy amount of people and not being able to get anywhere! I also am happy with the amount I got to see – I definitely got the full experience, in my opinion, without having to see every paso or sit somewhere for hours and hours! I can’t believe I have to go back to school tomorrow though and that I’m leaving for Barcelona on Friday – and I still have 3 projects to do before the end of the semester!
Enjoy the pictures (and videos this time!) and thanks for reading – sorry it was so long but I hope you got a decent understanding of Semana Santa here in Sevilla!
video of the costaleros lifting La Virgen
oo videos - very cool!
ResponderEliminarThis was a great entry - you know so much about this stuff, and I'm really impressed.
Now I really want the US to take a week off for Easter!