It's hard to put into words what I have just experienced during Sevilla's Easter Week. Perhaps the pictures will speak for themselves. To help explain what Semana Santa is all about, I have made the following brief Semana Santa 101:
Every day during the seven days leading up to Easter Sunday, richly bedecked, life sized
pasos depicting scenes from the Easter story are carried from Seville's churches through the streets to the cathedral accompanied by processions that often takemore than an hour to pass. These rites took on their present form in the 17th century, when many of the 'pasos'--some of which are supreme works of art--were created."
A 'paso' is a kind of portable altar or processional platform on which an episode of the gospel is represented. Each participating parish, church, or chapel has at least two pasos--one depicting Jesus, usually alone, crucified or carrying the cross, and the other depicting a sorrowful Virgin under a canopy.
Some churches have one or two pasos in addition to the main above ones. These additional pasos each depict a portion of the Easter story, and are much more elaborate. I soon learned to seek out these processions first, and found myself unable to just let them pass by. I had to walk along side them, drawn in by their enormous size, expressive artwork, and rhythmic movement.
The pasos move thanks to 'costaleros'—-the men under the platform-—that carrying the weight of the paso on their shoulders, "moving in a hypnotic swaying motion to the rythmn of their accompanying bands and the commands of their capitaz (leader), who strikes a bell to start and stop the paso (For more on the costaleros, see my earlier Semana Santa Preparations entry.)
Each pair of pasos has up to 3,000 costumed followers, known as Nazarenos. Most wear tall Klu-Klux-Klan type capes, which cover their heads except for eyeslits. It should be noted that Nazarenos wore these costumes for several centuries before the KKK even existed. Apparently the founding KKK leaders took their inspiration from seeing the Nazarenos outfits, but there is no other connection aside from that. In Spain, the attire of the Nazareno is a sacred costume, to be worn only during Semana Santa and only with the upmost reverence.
Many Nazarenos participate in order to give thanks and ask for blessings.
However, some Nazarenos are penitents--'sinners' who carry a cross on their shoulders and even go barefoot. The hood originates from this type of Nazareno, implying that the identity of the penitent is known only to God.
Some processions are accompanied by one or even two large bands playing special music used only for Semana Santa. There are some processions that are carried out entirely in silence, but for me the addition of the music made the experience so powerful that I eventually decided to attend just the accompanied processions.
Sometimes, someone in the audience will spontaneous start singing a 'saeta'--a special Semana Santa song that is strongly influenced by Flamenco and sounds like opera. When a saeta starts, the entire crowd falls silent and the procession stops to listen. I was lucky to witness saetas on a number of occassions, and got goosebumps several times.
The processions don't just wander through the streets. Each day from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, seven or eight churches send out
pasos in the afternoon or early evening, all headed on a specified route toward the main Cathedral. They pass through the Cathedral, then head back 'home' again. Although the routes vary according to the location of the church, there is an 'official route' for the last portion of the journey, and seats along that portion (shown at left below) provide the best viewing opportunity. Unfortunately the seats are reserved and impossible to get, as they are kept within the family for generations upon generations.
The shortest route takes about 4 hours, the longest ones 14 hours. I snapped the photo of this procession participant catching a little shut-eye at the 13th hour of his procession.
The processions were incredibly crowded, which occassionally made me wonder if it was all worth it. (It was!) The crowds were so large I couldn't capture them all with one shot, so below is my stitched-together attempt to show one crowd gathered to watch a paso leave its cathedral.
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Alright, I'm losing steam here. The rest is going to be short...) On Thursdays, women throughout Sevilla wear special black attire in commemoration of the death of Jesus. The special headpiece is called the mantilla.
Semana Santa isn't just for adults. Children participate in the processions as well. Altar boys carry staffs, swing incense burners...
...and young kids participate by passing out candies, walking along as a Nazareno (the non-penitent type), and even running around at night collecting the dripping wax from the candles of the Nazarenos to create giant wax balls. I wondered if Spanish children found the sight of the Nazarenos frightening, but it appears as though Spaniards have done a good job of making the holiday a positive, fun experience for children as well as adults.
Phew! I hope that wasn't too much to digest in one sitting. I suppose it would have been good to include some of my personal experiences during the week, but it took a week of viewing the processions for me to figure all this out, so I decided to focus on getting it all down 'on paper' before I forget any of it.
What a week!
First, I travel the itinerary shown on the map on the left. Then a solo week at a kasbah outside Marrakech, followed by the itinerary shown on the map at right. And after all that, back to Spain for a month of Spanish study in Granada. 
