Me Encanta Semana Santa!

Last week was Semana Santa, Seville's most popular and most important religious celebration of the year. It was probably the craziest, most ostentatious display of religiosity that I have ever witnessed in my life, and I loved it.

What is Semana Santa?
Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the week leading up to Easter. As you can imagine, it is a huge deal throughout all of highly-Catholic Spain. However, southern Spain is the place to be during Semana Santa because they do it up RIGHT. According to Wikipedia, "Seville arguably holds the most elaborate processions for Holy Week anywhere in the world." We're number one! Suck it, Madrid!

Where did it start?
The traditional processions date from the 16th century and have spread from Seville to many other cities inside and outside of Andalusia. The processions were originally intended to be a reaction against Protestantism, which was gaining popularity at the time. I imagine the exchange went something like this:

Luther: The Catholic Church is corrupt-- you spend way too much money on your obscenely ornate churches while the poor are dying in the streets! The way you worship statues of Mary and Jesus is disgusting.
Catholic Church: You think we have too many idols? We'll show you too many idols! All right, boys, cover everything in gold leaf and take it out into the streets!
Luther: ...I seriously hate you guys so much.

What actually happens during Semana Santa?
Sevilla's Semana Santa is notable for featuring the procession of "pasos", which are life-size wood or plaster sculptures of scenes from the last week of Jesus's life. For example, Jesus being beaten, Jesus falling with the cross, Jesus hanging on the cross, Mary weeping over Jesus's corpse, etc. There is no such thing as a happy paso. It's also interesting to note that the pasos come out in no chronological order whatsoever— you´ll see Jesus dying on the cross on a Monday and then Jesus just chilling, tied to a pole on Wednesday. Below are some pictures of pasos in Seville.

How do they get around the city?

These pasos are physically carried on the necks of men called costaleros, so named because of the "costal", a sack-like cloth that they wear over their neck to soften the burden. Doesn't soften it much, in my opinion, because the pasos are covered in precious metal and can weigh up to five metric tons. (I'll never complain about my laptop making my backpack too heavy again.) Depending on the size of the paso, there can be 30-40 men underneath supporting it for up to eight hours. Below is a picture of some costaleros under the base of a paso.

But who's behind all this?

The pasos are set up and maintained by hermandades and cofradías, ancient religious brotherhoods from various parts of the city. Members of these organizations traditionally precede the paso dressed in Roman military costumes or penitential robes. Most members wear the penitential robes with conical hats, or “capirotes”, which conceal their face. These "Nazarenos" carry processional candles, often walk the city streets barefoot, and may wear shackles and chains in their feet as penance. A band usually accompanies the group, playing funereal religious hymns or "marchas" written for the occasion.

Freaking out yet? As you may have guessed, these robes served as the inspiration for the uniform of the Ku Klux Klan. (It's important to note that they're not affiliated in any way.) As a result, Semana Santa can be TERRIFYING for Americans, even if you know what to expect, and Spaniards like to make fun of us for that reason.

Fun facts:

In the eight days of Semana Santa, a total of 57 brotherhoods carry their 116 pasos from their church to the Cathedral and back. Around 60,000 brothers participate actively in the processions. The number of spectators rises over 1,000,000 people during the most important moment of Semana Santa in Seville: early morning of Good Friday, when the brotherhoods of El Silencio, El Gran Poder, La Macarena, El Calvario, La Esperanza de Triana and Los Gitanos set off for the Cathedral. The below pictures show how ridiculously crowded it can get during Semana Santa. (I happened to try to cross the bridge to get home at the same time as a famous paso-- it took literally 30 minutes to muscle my way across.)

One important thing to note is though Spaniards love Semana Santa, Easter is surprisingly not a big deal. (One of my professors said, "No one in Seville likes Easter. Easter means the end of the party.") In fact, churches are much fuller on Good Friday than on Easter because everyone goes to the beach or sleeps in.

That's about it for Semana Santa-- I witnessed only three days of it, but I had a great time and I highly recommend seeing it in person if you have the opportunity. You can't capture the fog of incense or the incredible sound of the bands in pictures.

My next update will describe my amazing new senora!