Catching up- Semana Santa!

Hi everyone!!! I have to apologize again for being a slacker on the blogging…with all the traveling on the weekends, my weeks have been very filled with actual school work. I FINALLY finished a huge project that had been stressing me out for about 3 weeks now yesterday. I was in a group with my friend Chrisy and another girl in our class, and we had to write a 10 pg paper about a Linguistics topic and give a 15 minute presentation on it. We chose Spanglish (it's apparently an actual language). Our paper turned out well, and our teacher said our presentation was great...so I am VERY happy to have that over with!!

Anyways, I have not written about my few days in Sevilla during Semana Santa (holy week), or my trip to Lagos, or my trip this past weekend to Morocco!! Let me start with Semana Santa (last week).

As I mentioned before, Semana Santa is a HUGE deal in Sevilla. It’s a pretty big deal in all of Spain because it’s so Catholic, but especially in the Andalucía region, and ESPECIALLY in Sevilla. People come from all over to see Semana Santa here, we’re a pretty big deal. Basically, the whole city shuts down for an entire week and becomes devoted to Semana Santa. The celebrations revolve around these huge religious-themed floats called pasos. Most of the churches in Sevilla have 1 or 2 floats, and they are basically these HUGE wooden things with ridiculous detail in the wood, in gold or silver, with glass, wax, flowers, or any combination of those things. Most of them are very old, and some of they weigh up to a metric ton. The coolest part is that they are carried through the streets by MEN. Anywhere from 20-50 men, called costaleros, support the huge paso by standing under it and carrying the weight on their necks. You can’t see them because they are covered by a curtain that hangs down from the paso, but I literally cannot even comprehend how these guys can carry these things; they are so big and look so heavy! And they carry them for several hours at a time! Each float starts at its own church and they each take different routes around the city, stopping at the Cathedral at some point, and ending up back at their church. The streets are FILLED with people watching the floats, and the people that accompany them. These guys are called nazarenos, they are the members of the brotherhood of the church. They dress up in robes and capes head to toe, and wear hats that are basically the exact same as the KKK. So for us Americans it is a very interesting sight, but for the Spanish people it is just tradition. They even have little kids running around in these outfits. Kinda creepy. All in all, Semana Santa was very cool to see. For some Sevillanos, it’s a very serious religious holiday, but for others it represents the Sevillan culture and tradition. As my Señora put it, to her, the pasos don’t really have any religious meaning, rather they are amazing works of art put on display every year for free in the street. I definitely agree with her!!

Here is a link to my Facebook album with Semana Santa pictures:

Semana Santa in Sevilla

Check them out! Lagos and Morocco blogs coming up next!!