Holy Week in Seville

The famous Semana Santa de Sevilla, the much-discussed must-see! What is it like? The avoid-like-the-plague instead? Well, it is a large-scale long-lasting mass event that brings millions of people together to share the city streets, so it has its cons of course. I haven't taken part in all of it. I went to see a procession of the Brotherhood of La Pasión (Passion) at the Collegiate Church El Salvador in Seville on Holy Thursday (Jueves Santo). La Pasión is quite a noble fellowship in fact, it was founded in 1531. 

El Salvador

The procession of La Pasión started to march out of the church at 8.30 PM and was expected to be back around 1.00 AM. Thus, a short one. Note that the moment the procession started all the people gathered in El Salvador Square (Plaza del Salvador) remained silent. Not a sound was made, not one single sound amongst the countless gathered bodies. In 2013 this brotherhood held the Holy Thursday procession in the participation of 1100 Nazarenes (nazarenos), penitents, clothed in black tail with black hood (capirote) and yellow straw belt. Some of them may have been barefoot, but I didn't see whether or not they were. What I did see was that many were marching with at least one 10-kilo wooden cross on their shoulders.

Capirotes of El Calvario, similar to those of La Pasión

In any case, this brotherhood had two images: Jesus with the cross on his shoulder and Virgin of Mercy (Virgen de la Merced) accompanied on the left by St. John the Evangelist. No music was played while marching with Jesus, and for moving the Virgin, a typical tune in a minor key was performed by a band: on cornets and drums before and on more instruments after her.

The paso of Jesus

Close-up of Virgen de la Merced

One must see that Holy Week is the highlight of the year for every true Nazarene, taking part in the movement of the floats (pasos) of his brotherhood through the city streets. The entire thing is like 3D version of the Stations of the Cross. The pasos are carried on the shoulders of costaleros, probably up to 50 men, all of the same height, working as a team to keep going for nearly five continuous hours. The costaleros work in shifts (cuadrillas) and since they cannot see what is going on outside (nor can you see them), they follow the instructions of the leader of the paso (capataz). Everything on the floating structures (canastillas) to display religious imagery moving it out of the church most certainly has a special meaning (lanterns in the corners etc.).

The paso of the Virgin

El Salvador itself is a big church, being home to two more brotherhoods (hermandades): El Amor and La Borriquita. They have other imagery and other everything. Their processions were held on Palm Sunday, opening the Holy Week. It's actually a science to know what to see, when to go, where to go and how to get there, as the city is overcrowded during the whole week, but there are some guiding materials designed for public use. Information about the itinerary of all the pasos is available both on paper and on the Internet. One can download it as a pdf-file, and also, luckily for smart phone users, as a free app called iLlamador.

In case my description still isn't clear enough, there is a 1992 documentary worth watching about Semana Santa directed by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, as stated by Manuel Trenzado Romero, professor (Political Science and Public Administration) at the University of Granada (see the references). You can read more about the film (in Spanish only) here and see it on YouTube.