The Rosary of Aurora

On September 22 the Rosary of Aurora (La Rosario de la Aurora) was held in Tomares, in the metropolitan area of Seville. The statue of Our Lady of Sorrows (La Virgen de los Dolores) was carried in procession through the town to the Parish Church of Our Lady of Bethlehem (La Iglesia Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Belén) for the pleasure and enjoyment of the members of the congregation, the penitents of the Sacramental Brotherhood of Tomares (La Hermandad Sacramental de Tomares) and the guests. 

Our Lady of Sorrows of the Parish Church of Tomares. Photo by José Manzano

The Hail Mary Prayer (Dios te salve, María) was breathtakingly sung by all present:

Hail Mary,

Full of Grace,

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit

of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary,

Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now,

and at the hour of death.

Amen. 

And it was very solemn and beautiful, as all the processions tend to be in Tomares, in fact. Watch the video by José Javier Comas Rodríguez here and see for yourself!

Holy Week in Seville - What is it all about

Holy Week in Seville (Semana Santa de Sevilla) is probably one of the most extraordinary celebrations in the Christian world, which explains why it attracts both national and international media attention (see an illustrative news item) and brings together that many religious people and unreligious rubbernecks from Spain and abroad: there are estimably around 3 million people in Seville during that time of the year. 

How come that they have developed such a celebration?

To start with, the Holy Week processions are prepared and staged by religious brotherhoods, which are exclusively male. During these processions they carry, in true unity, huge images of Christ and the Virgin, called pasos, through the streets of Seville, the saint's image being their most important ritual object. From there, Dutch anthropologist Prof. Dr. Henk Driessen (University of Nijmegen) points out that the Holy Week in Seville is above all a high time of male sociability. According to him (see the references), religious brotherhoods were historically organised along class lines. American anthropologist Prof. Dr. David D. Gilmore (Stony Brook University) brings the same to attention: he has also found that the only people who joined the brotherhoods back then in the 70s (at the time of his stay in Spain) were members of the wealthiest class (one per cent of the population of the area studied).

These days money and status are not even an issue anymore. Men keep joining the brotherhoods and Seville keeps celebrating Holy Week in its characteristic way. I asked myself, since when? Now I sort of know. Musicologists Corinna Kramer and Leo J. Plenckers, who have studied saetas, rhythmically free flamenco songs that deal with suffering of Christ or the grief of his mother Mary performed in the religious processions held in Andalusian towns during Holy Week, argue that the tradition of singing saetas in front of an image existed already in the nineteenth century, but the tradition of carring images in Holy week processions may be much older. So, it dates back to centuries.

Example of a saeta

In any case, these brotherhoods are activated only once during the year for Holy Week. Many nazarenos nowadays are not even religious. They pay their share, practice for the synchronised movements of the pasos, are there for Holy Week, and that's more or less it. But it's not by far insignificant as this is the intensest period imaginable. It's a hell of a contribution to their brotherhoods, families and society in general. Driessen says that fireworks, the monotonous rolling of the drums, the excessive drinking during processions, sleeplessness, the carrying of the heavy floats through the winding and inclined streets, hoarse competitive shouts like "Long live Verónica" (those of El Valle), or "La Soledad is the best" dramatise the atmosphere of the celebrations. The downside to all this extremity is that the processions often end in chaos. The men all worn out. But look, it's highly significant that women are part of the audience, proudly watching their husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and fiancés act out their masculine role. It's a men's thing, unquestionably.

Men start acting an expected role when being very young. They go to football practice for not being considered gays by others. They join adult men with 5 years or less only, wearing a super cute mini version of nazareno's robe for participating in processions.

Nazareno boy of San Gonzalo, image taken from here

They have to be sociable, witty and amusing, with gracia (funny, with ease). Cachondeo, a particular type of joking, is very popular among Andalusian men, most seen in the streets, bars and cafés. The initiator of the joke tries to get a rise out of his victim. It is important for the victim to keep his face, withstand the jest, and strike back in a cool manner. They then stop at nothing in making an out of line joke (broma pesa). A man who looses his temper is despised by the audience. It doesn't have much to do with Semana Santa, but with being a man in Seville. It's all the same in the end. All about social norms.

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.