Semana Santa in Sevilla
I've heard people say that Semana Santa in Sevilla is a must-see in Spain, similar to las Fallas in Valencia. For the last couple of years, I've investigated what it would take to visit, and it's always turned out to be a bit too pricey and/or flights and trains were fully booked to/from Sevilla during that week.
This year, I planned a bit in advance, and thanks to using frequent flier miles along with a wonderful birthday gift from friends, for a night's stay in a hotel, not so costly. Also, I arrived on the "Friday of Sorrows," the Friday before Palm Sunday when things really got into swing.
This turned out to be great, because I could really observe one of the processions of penance without massive crowds! Processions are scheduled throughout the week of Semana Santa, and they are more or less the same every year. In fact, the Sevillanos I spoke with all had the processions and routes memorized!
Each procession is led by a hermandad or cofradía, or brotherhood, associated with a parish. The one I saw was from La Hermandad del Cristo de la Corona, which is from the Seagrario de la Catedral, annexed to the Cathedral.
Their procession started at the gates of the Cathedral, where indeed there was a huge crowd waiting for the 8:10pm exit of the procession.
The pasos are the large structures that are carried around, kind of like floats. Different cofradías have different numbers of pasos; this cofradía had just this one.
After seeing the exit of the paso, I decided to head off to dinner. On my way back to the hotel, I saw the purple hoods floating through the city. They were still walking around the center!
Here are some photos from the procession.
This part was delightful. The little kids have baskets of candies that they hand out to the observers. The little boy with glasses cheerfully ran up to me and handed me one!
Amazing how they go barefoot around the city. Thankfully Sevilla is probably the cleanest city in Spain I've ever visited.
I enjoyed seeing this procession so up close. The pasos are carried by a team of guys underneath. Here's a helper offering the guys underneath water, during a break.
And family members talked to the guys through the open decorations.
This procession would keep going until midnight. Other procession last much longer: for example in the early hours of Good Friday, one of the main days of Semana Santa, the procession La Macarena leaves their church at midnight and returns at 1pm, 13 hours later!
To close, I leave you with this Playmobil Semana Santa display in a toy store shop window!
