Semana Santa

Friday, 7:51 p.m.

This post is going to be pretty photo-heavy, and light on the words – I’m feeling a little under the weather (I’ve been fighting a low-grade temperature since this morning), and sleep is more appealing than anything else right now. Also, the pictures I have really speak for themselves.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a big to-do in Spain. Kids are out of school, stores are closed a lot of the time, and the whole town – Catholics and non-Catholics – is extremely invested in what this week represents.

There have been processions all week, usually taking place in the evenings. Churches each have their own “float” that they take through the city, accompanied by drums and incense and huge flocks of people.

I’ve caught the small ones here and there throughout the week. Thursday’s procession was enormous. It consisted of all the churches that have participated thus far, plus additional drums and instruments, to make a huge procession. Each group started from their own church and met up in a spot on the Paseo to start the procession.

The sidewalks were packed full of people eager to see this intense form of art and reverence all rolled into one. Last night’s statues weren’t the intense ones processing tonight (my not feeling well and it being a little rainy outside are keeping me from seeing it), but they were beautiful, as you can see:

The procession took around an hour-and-a-half from where I watched it, but it was such an incredible sight to see.

This morning (Saturday) a group of us who stayed in town this weekend went to the nearby town of Castro Urbiales. Every year since 1985 the town has put on an reenactment of the Passion.

We arrived at 8:30 a.m. and made our way to the cathedral, the first spot of the reenactment. The reenactment started at 10:00, and by then the place was packed. Since our group was so early, we managed to snag some really good spots right up front.

Watching the reenactment was amazing. Around 600 people in the town were in it, playing roles from Jesus and his disciples to Pontius Pilate to prostitutes to townspeople to lepers. Dramatic music played the entire time, and the cloudy weather and circling seagulls overhead really added to the somber atmosphere.

The reenactment went through the town, so I didn’t get good spots for all of the scenes. Here are a random assortment of pictures, ranging from Castro Urdiales itself to the crucifixion:

There were some incredibly intense moments – like Judas hanging himself (pretty convincingly) to Jesus being lashed 40 times (not as convincing, but he was being hit with whips dipped in paint, which adorned his back like real blood). It was all done so incredibly well and I was very impressed.

Even though I didn’t always understand exactly what was being said, I found that I was able to pick up on the general idea of things thanks slightly to my Spanish ability, but more significantly due to my growing up in the Catholic church. Not to mention my family’s Easter tradition of listening to Jesus Christ Superstar – I was singing the songs in my head as the reenactment was taking place, so I could refresh my memory about the story.

We took the bus home and now I’m waiting on dinner, then am promptly going to bed. This fever needs to be gone by tomorrow because I have a presentation on Monday that needs my attention!

♥ abigail