Rainy Semana Santa

Long time no blog. Quite a few things have changed around here. I'm on Easter holiday right now... here in Sevilla it's called "Semana Santa". And it's been raining a lot!

A week ago, my sweetheart arrived. He is planning to study flamenco percussion for 4 months! That is very exciting. We moved to a sweet little appartment straight away. It's not big, but has got some big perks that I've been missing: Nice hot water pressure in the shower, our own washing machine, marble floors, air conditioning and an orange tree outside the window, which spreads its lovely orange blossom scent into our room at night.

On Palm Sunday, the most impressive week of the entire Catholic world started: The processions of Semana Santa, the Holy Week. Almost 60 brotherhoods carry their Jesus and Virgin statues in a solemn procession to the Cathedral to absolve their sins - the "estación de penitencia". Some processions include 3000 penitents, the "nazarenos", who wear big pointy hats and walk in silence, sometimes barefoot. The statues follow behind, placed on heavy floats and decorated with candles and flowers. The floats weigh over 2 tons and are carried by about 50 men. The Christ and Virgin are fiercely venerated and the many hundreds (sometimes thousands) of onlookers hush into silence when their adored Virgin is carried by. Someone on a balcony might sing break into a "saeta", a religious song which sounds like flamenco.

Cristo del Silencio, photo by John Flury

Unfortunately, the first days of Holy Week were marked by heavy falls of rain. That means that the valuable statues cannot be carried to the Cathedral. However, many times this week, wherever we would go somewhere, a procession was blocking the way.

We got a small reprieve on Wednesday and went to see some "pasos" - floats. It rained again all Thursday. The most important processions take place in the small hours of Friday morning - coming out of their churches at 1AM, some not returning to their homechurch till 2PM of that day. We got lucky, the sky cleared up around midnight, so we rushed to the center to see "El Silencio" go by. This procession passes in absolute silence. When the Christ and the Virgin pass by, there is no sound to be heard. An impressive feat for the noisy and talk-loving Sevillanos!

On our way home to the Macarena, we were blocked by the procession of that same neighborhood. The entire barrio was out to see "their" virgin. There was no way through. So we waited, and watched. And there she came. The crowd applauded, some people in tears.

Virgen de la Macarena, photo by John Flury

I am not a believer and even less Catholic, so hearing about the processions of Semana Santa made me shake my head. There are many rules and it's a very fundamentalist affair. However, I wasn't expecting the folk festival atmosphere nor the festivity in the air - the Sevillanos do know how to celebrate. The music played by the procession bands is beautiful, and the adoration and veneration an entire neighborhood feels for their Virgin is very powerful. It was a nice experience to be able to take part in the onlooking and be part of the crowd.