Saturday
It was another rainy day in Sevilla. Why it would decide to rain frequently now after so many weeks without a single drop is beyond me. I don’t mind rain, but not now when it’s Semana Santa. Despite the rain, that really wasn’t very heavy, I ventured out to meet up with Paige. I bought a sweatshirt for myself that was rather an impulsive buy, however it was the cheapest price I’d seen so far and it said “I love Sevilla” which is the first we’ve encountered in Sevilla. I had previously believed they just didn’t sell sweatshirts here since I’ve been in many shops without seeing any. However, thanks to Paige’s diligent browsing through souvenir shops in her free time, we now both possess legit Sevilla sweatshirts.
We had planned on visiting some more churches in order to see pasos, but they were all closed in the early afternoon, so we ended up watching some more Next Great Baker episodes while we waited for things to open up. Our second attempt at visiting churches, around seven, was more successful and we saw pasos in San Lorenzo, Jesús de Gran Poder, El Salvador and Capilla de Montserrat. We also tried to get into Magdalena because they were having a ceremony for putting the Calvary statues up on the paso and I’m sure it would have been really cool to see. Unfortunately, the huge church was so packed that we couldn’t even get through the doors and from our position trying to look in from outside, it was impossible to make out what was going on. So we split up to go eat supper and after were then going to try to go to a special Mass and ceremony at eleven for kissing the hands of the most famous Jesus statue in Sevilla, Jesús de Gran Poder. Concepción wanted to come with me so we met up with Paige at the church at ten and waited in line until the church doors were opened and then it was a mad rush to get seats. In a matter of seconds the church was full and we managed to snag seats in the very last row that didn’t provide the greatest view thanks to people standing in front of us, but it was better than nothing. After the Mass and the long wait in line to kiss the statue, we left the church around midnight and I was astounded to see that the line of people waiting to get into the church and kiss the statue wrapped all the way around the plaza. And so began the crowds of people and Semana Santa excitement.
La Borriquita
Sunday
I went to a Palm Sunday Mass in San Lorenzo Church and instead of the palms that we receive in the U.S., we all got olive branches. The Mass lasted for about an hour and a half and I didn’t make it in time for a seat, so that was a little difficult, but standing for hours is going to become the norm with all the processions to watch. Once I met up with Paige, we went to Plaza del Duque in order to stake out a spot to view the processions, since the majority of them pass through Duque. However, the rain began an on and off type of game that caused four brotherhoods to cancel their processions which was quite a disappointment. Also, La Borriquita, which was the supposed to be the first procession and is of Jesus riding on a donkey, was moved back to leaving around ten at night with another procession called El Amor. Fortunately the rain did stop after a while, and so we got to see San Roque, La Amargura, La Borriquita and El Amor, plus La Estrella from a distance.
We were lucky enough to get right up in the front for the majority of the processions we saw, and it made for a lot of great photo opportunities. I think I took over 500 photos, which was definitely too much and it will take me forever to go through them all. We ended up standing and watching/waiting from eight to midnight and the processions weren’t too far apart from each other, so it wasn’t a terribly long time waiting. Once it got dark, it was super cool to see the Nazarenos with their candles and especially the gorgeous pasos all lit up. One really exciting moment was when this huge paso of Christ stopped right in front of us in order for the costaleros (carriers) to switch out for a reprieve. When the men had switched out, the paso was lifted back up in a rapid jerk that was startling but impressive. The Nazarenos, the people wearing the outfits with the tall hoods called capirotes, ranged from adults to little children and in la Borriquita procession there were tons of children since that one was supposed to be in the early afternoon and be done before dark. The child Nazarenos and some of the adults would give out candy to the watching children and so all the little kids would stick out their hands every time Nazarenos walked by.
Paso from San Roque
Paso from La Amargura
The last paso of the night
Monday
Since it is raining today, such a bummer, already some of the processions have been canceled. The only good thing about it is that I don't need to deal with the crowds to get to work, so I can leave around my usual time instead of close to an hour earlier. I will probably only be able to access the internet a couple more times before I leave, since the school closes this Wednesday, and I'm not sure about the plaza, depending on crowds. So this is potentially the last post until Italy. Exciting and sad all at the same time. Hasta luego.
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