Semana Santa
Semana Santa Domingo de Ramos a Martes (martes no pasos salen porque la lluvia)
So how do I start out explaining Semana Santa well lets say that my first day of Semana Santa I was ready and well prepared for what I saw. With my two intercambios we went to watch the first paso La Estrella. In a group of 5 guys dressed up in three piece suits with nice ties, their tradition for every Palm Sunday (yeah I was feeling pretty good surrounded by these nice looking guys). We watched the paso leave the church and I got my first taste of the floats covered in flowers in and candles at the bottom of a huge statue of Jesus- this one in particular had Jesus riding a donkey for Palm Sunday. The things I will remember in particular is the saeta- the song that is sung by a faithful person who stands in a balcony window near the church and sings this song, similiar to flamenco, to the image when it leaves or comes near to reentering its church. The crowd of people is quieted because microphones are never used and the person has to project their voice over the whole street. (Picture of lady)
The other picture of Plaza Salvador with the paso San Bernardo passing in front of it. 
I haven’t explained the scene very well so lets back up to describe what a paso is and those involved. First there are a certain amount of churches that have 2 pasos one of Jesus 
(like in these pictures, the one with the cathedral is from my university´s pasos-and it is called Los Estudiantes) during these last days of his life- his time of suffering. These next pictures are of Santa Genoveva. The first is taken between Parque Maria Luisa and the Palacio San Telmo.
So how do I start out explaining Semana Santa well lets say that my first day of Semana Santa I was ready and well prepared for what I saw. With my two intercambios we went to watch the first paso La Estrella. In a group of 5 guys dressed up in three piece suits with nice ties, their tradition for every Palm Sunday (yeah I was feeling pretty good surrounded by these nice looking guys). We watched the paso leave the church and I got my first taste of the floats covered in flowers in and candles at the bottom of a huge statue of Jesus- this one in particular had Jesus riding a donkey for Palm Sunday. The things I will remember in particular is the saeta- the song that is sung by a faithful person who stands in a balcony window near the church and sings this song, similiar to flamenco, to the image when it leaves or comes near to reentering its church. The crowd of people is quieted because microphones are never used and the person has to project their voice over the whole street. (Picture of lady)
The other picture of Plaza Salvador with the paso San Bernardo passing in front of it. 
I haven’t explained the scene very well so lets back up to describe what a paso is and those involved. First there are a certain amount of churches that have 2 pasos one of Jesus 
(like in these pictures, the one with the cathedral is from my university´s pasos-and it is called Los Estudiantes) during these last days of his life- his time of suffering. These next pictures are of Santa Genoveva. The first is taken between Parque Maria Luisa and the Palacio San Telmo. 
This picture was taken in calle Alfalfa of La Candelaria paso.In these next two photos you can see La Lanzada in Alameda de Hercules. 
The last supper and his riding the donkey on palm Sunday were the only two I saw where he wasn’t suffering. These pasos as you can see are crammed with golden (yep its real) objects and when you get close there are tons of details etched into it. (this picture is of a paso from Santa Genoveva, between Parque Maria Luisa and the Palacio San Telmo). 
Now the second paso is always of the virgin Mary. 
This is less weight at times because it is not covered in as many gold parts just a ton of candles, flowers and a covering that is intricately sown in real gold thread (nothing about these pasos is cheap). The part that is most interesting for me is the people involved in the pasos.
The Band, people on horseback, and guardia civil. If the church can they have a couple people on horseback to lead the paso and after them is the band. I didn’t see many with people on horseback. Each paso has a band to play melodies for the image. With the first image of Jesus the music is more with horns, drums, and instruments that make a lot louder sounds. The band related to the Virgin tends to more the woodwinds and orchestra type of instruments. On all 4 corners of every paso there is a guard dressed in his dress uniform that walks with the paso as it moves through town. This picture is of the policemen in their formal attire, as they await the arrival of the first procession in Plaza San Francisco.
The nazarenos. These are the people who wear the robes that are elaborately embroidered with emblems of their particular church or cofradia (these disfraces or masks are similiar to the KKK in the US).
They wear medallions, carry crosses or big candles or banners 
(mainly adults carry the crosses and the banners). They are separated into sections to help with the identifying where people that you know are, you just look for a person carrying a certain banner and somewhere in that section is that person. These people walk in sandals, socks, or barefoot through the streets and most take a vow of silence. The two types of nazarenos are candle carriers who move in front of the Jesus paso and are usually composed of the kids and less strict adults. The other group carries crosses and their hoods usually aren’t stuffed with the cardboard to make it stand straight up. These are usually adults I found them to be a lot more strict. 
All the nazarenos move in relation to the music played by the bands and those with candles are known to give out candies, medallions, and photos of their pasos to onlookers. These people can be any age, and one paso in particular had a whole section of kids walking. El Gran Poder paso had over 200 nazarenos- this can be really annoying to stand and watch because it takes so long to get past the nazarenos to see the pasos. 
I found these people really fun to watch because of how varied their ages and their actions with onlookers. I saw one infant that was so tired after an hour of walking that he was being pushed in a stroller by his mom (smart if you ask me). I also received a lot of gifts from the nazarenos because a lot of them knew Mario. I loved it when someone would tap Mario and point at a Nazareno and Mario would go to the nazareno and receive gifts- sometimes they would whisper something to him and his expression would change from wonder to surprise. I had a couple nazarenos give gifts to me too but they never tried to talk to me and to this day I still have no idea who they were. This pic is of a nazareno talking to his friend while he passes by.
One time we had to get a pop to Mario’s brother Danny (after walking for hours it is nice to eat or drink something). Well the fun part is trying to figure out which one is him. Mario had more practice then me, and immediately knew which one he was. Danny also did a sign of tapping on his cross to say that he saw Mario too. After 3 times I still couldn’t figure out which hooded figure was Danny. Mario told me the trick to find Danny in particular was to look for his fingernails because his are longer then the others to help him play his guitar so that is what Mario looks for. This helped a bit but I still never got really good at it.
I liked watching the child nazarenos because they would lift up their hoods to talk to people, some would try to eat bocadillos below their hoods so it wasn’t obvious, little toddlers would carry baskets and give their candies to other little kids and some didn’t really want to share with the other kids. A game played by kids watching was to take tinfoil in a ball and ask nazarenos to turn their candles so wax would fall on the ball. Some kids have been doing this for years and their balls were pretty big. I enjoyed watching these pasos a lot.
The costaleros. These are the men that actually carry the pasos and all you see of these men are their feet. This is a really tough job and is the hardest job of Semana Santa. It varies for every paso but the average is around 40-60 men for each paso and thankfully these men get breaks from beneath the float to relax and just walk. These men have fabric tied on their head that they use to carry the weight. I was continually impressed at how well these costaleros moved in unison, jumped at times, and moved in ways that are referred to as “dancing” as they move to the sound of the music played by the bands. On Monday night at 4 am in the morning (yeah I was cold and sleepy) we went to watch Mario’s brother’s paso return to its church in Triana. I have to say I was amazed by what the costaleros for the virgin did. First this church (Gonzalo) has an opening that isn’t very tall, so to return the virgin to inside they have to send a man up to take off her crown. Then after their turn so the image faces the public (and underneath the costeleros switch so they can face going into the church) they get down on their knees and slowly carry the virgin back into the church. They bellow and grunt as they make slow progress into the church- Amazing! I was told that the costeleros are like the quarterbacks of a football team, they have a lot of responsibility and all eyes are on them in the end.
The last supper and his riding the donkey on palm Sunday were the only two I saw where he wasn’t suffering. These pasos as you can see are crammed with golden (yep its real) objects and when you get close there are tons of details etched into it. (this picture is of a paso from Santa Genoveva, between Parque Maria Luisa and the Palacio San Telmo). 
Now the second paso is always of the virgin Mary. 
This is less weight at times because it is not covered in as many gold parts just a ton of candles, flowers and a covering that is intricately sown in real gold thread (nothing about these pasos is cheap). The part that is most interesting for me is the people involved in the pasos.The Band, people on horseback, and guardia civil. If the church can they have a couple people on horseback to lead the paso and after them is the band. I didn’t see many with people on horseback. Each paso has a band to play melodies for the image. With the first image of Jesus the music is more with horns, drums, and instruments that make a lot louder sounds. The band related to the Virgin tends to more the woodwinds and orchestra type of instruments. On all 4 corners of every paso there is a guard dressed in his dress uniform that walks with the paso as it moves through town. This picture is of the policemen in their formal attire, as they await the arrival of the first procession in Plaza San Francisco.
The nazarenos. These are the people who wear the robes that are elaborately embroidered with emblems of their particular church or cofradia (these disfraces or masks are similiar to the KKK in the US).
They wear medallions, carry crosses or big candles or banners 
(mainly adults carry the crosses and the banners). They are separated into sections to help with the identifying where people that you know are, you just look for a person carrying a certain banner and somewhere in that section is that person. These people walk in sandals, socks, or barefoot through the streets and most take a vow of silence. The two types of nazarenos are candle carriers who move in front of the Jesus paso and are usually composed of the kids and less strict adults. The other group carries crosses and their hoods usually aren’t stuffed with the cardboard to make it stand straight up. These are usually adults I found them to be a lot more strict. 
All the nazarenos move in relation to the music played by the bands and those with candles are known to give out candies, medallions, and photos of their pasos to onlookers. These people can be any age, and one paso in particular had a whole section of kids walking. El Gran Poder paso had over 200 nazarenos- this can be really annoying to stand and watch because it takes so long to get past the nazarenos to see the pasos. 
I found these people really fun to watch because of how varied their ages and their actions with onlookers. I saw one infant that was so tired after an hour of walking that he was being pushed in a stroller by his mom (smart if you ask me). I also received a lot of gifts from the nazarenos because a lot of them knew Mario. I loved it when someone would tap Mario and point at a Nazareno and Mario would go to the nazareno and receive gifts- sometimes they would whisper something to him and his expression would change from wonder to surprise. I had a couple nazarenos give gifts to me too but they never tried to talk to me and to this day I still have no idea who they were. This pic is of a nazareno talking to his friend while he passes by.
One time we had to get a pop to Mario’s brother Danny (after walking for hours it is nice to eat or drink something). Well the fun part is trying to figure out which one is him. Mario had more practice then me, and immediately knew which one he was. Danny also did a sign of tapping on his cross to say that he saw Mario too. After 3 times I still couldn’t figure out which hooded figure was Danny. Mario told me the trick to find Danny in particular was to look for his fingernails because his are longer then the others to help him play his guitar so that is what Mario looks for. This helped a bit but I still never got really good at it.I liked watching the child nazarenos because they would lift up their hoods to talk to people, some would try to eat bocadillos below their hoods so it wasn’t obvious, little toddlers would carry baskets and give their candies to other little kids and some didn’t really want to share with the other kids. A game played by kids watching was to take tinfoil in a ball and ask nazarenos to turn their candles so wax would fall on the ball. Some kids have been doing this for years and their balls were pretty big. I enjoyed watching these pasos a lot.
The costaleros. These are the men that actually carry the pasos and all you see of these men are their feet. This is a really tough job and is the hardest job of Semana Santa. It varies for every paso but the average is around 40-60 men for each paso and thankfully these men get breaks from beneath the float to relax and just walk. These men have fabric tied on their head that they use to carry the weight. I was continually impressed at how well these costaleros moved in unison, jumped at times, and moved in ways that are referred to as “dancing” as they move to the sound of the music played by the bands. On Monday night at 4 am in the morning (yeah I was cold and sleepy) we went to watch Mario’s brother’s paso return to its church in Triana. I have to say I was amazed by what the costaleros for the virgin did. First this church (Gonzalo) has an opening that isn’t very tall, so to return the virgin to inside they have to send a man up to take off her crown. Then after their turn so the image faces the public (and underneath the costeleros switch so they can face going into the church) they get down on their knees and slowly carry the virgin back into the church. They bellow and grunt as they make slow progress into the church- Amazing! I was told that the costeleros are like the quarterbacks of a football team, they have a lot of responsibility and all eyes are on them in the end.
This picture of the Triana bridge because all the pasos from Triana cross this bridge. It is really hard to see a pasos from this bridge and we never used the bridge when we wanted to cross between Triana and Centro- can you guess why?This particular procession is of San Gonzalo (the procession Danny was in) as they cross the Triana bridge, on it's way to the official procession route and Cathedral.My general opinion of Semana Santa is that a lot of the pasos are the same and while it is fun to watch pasos- it is a lot more fun to watch the reaction of the crowds to the pasos. I was lucky enough to be able to see the pasos from VIP seats near the cathedral where you see every paso and there isn’t any delay between them, on the streets in the middle of the day and last but not least when they return to their respective churches. In my opinion seeing them on the streets is the most fun, and while a lot get back really late at night it is worth braving the cold, crowds, and sleepiness to see the pasos return to their church for the saetas, cheers from the crowd, and sounds of the costaleros as they finish this exhausting day of work.
posted by Lauren Westling @ 4:34 AM
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