Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain
The boys and I just returned from a seminar on the Semana Santa in Spain. We will be attending one of these parades in Jerez, so we wanted to find out the origin of this traditional parade and the practices that go along with it. The floats in the larger cities, Sevilla & Cadiz, are most impressive because they tend to have more money to decorate them. They are adorned with pure gold, silver and even diamonds. They start making the preparations for this Holy Week parade in early February.
The origin of the parade stems from a rebuttal to the Protestant Reformation. To prove that Catholicism was the best religion and the way to gain people into their churches, they took the “church” to the people. The floats that are paraded thru the cities portray the events that occurred from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday, specifically the crucifixion, of Jesus Christ.
These works of art- some dating to the 17th century are enormous. They are hand carried by costaleros, takes about 30-40 men per float on average, who consider this to be a privileged once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to do so and pay large sums of money (most have waiting lists) to have this opportunity. They are underneath each float and cannot see where they are going. They are instructed by the sounds of a foreman as he hits a stick on the ground or knocks on the side of the float.
Each float is made by a “Brotherhood” or association. Each Brotherhood will have two floats, one of Jesus Christ and the other of the Virgin Mary. In the bigger cities there are more Brotherhoods, hence they have a more lavish parade. The members of the Brotherhood decorate and carry the float. They are dressed in what we would equate with that of the KKK. This garb enables them to hide their identity, which has the meaning that God is the only one who knows who they are. The flags and banners that are carried depict the Brotherhood that is carrying each float.
It used to be the practice that they would take the parade by the prison of each city so the prisoners could view the parade. After seeing the floats, one prisoner would be set free. It used to be by drawing a persons name, at the time of the parade- regardless of what this person was in jail for, he was set free. We were told that the only city that still practices this custom is Malaga, but they now have a set of rules on who gets to be picked as the one who is able to be set free. The parade route tends to be in the older parts of the city- by town hall.
We will attempt to take pictures when we go and post them so you will be able to see this parade also. This type of parade goes on each night of Holy Week in every city. You can find photos and information about Semana Santa in Sevilla here and here if you are interested.
Now, I will return to my posting of pictures of the Fortress of the Gate of Seville.