Processional Wandererings

 We are walking north amongst the unreviewed lands.  We are in Holy Week.  Let’s have a chat about that.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Week_in_Spain  

We were staying on the eastern edge of Malaga when we first encountered Holy Week done locally.  The local school headed out and processed there saint to the general approval of all and the slight confusion of the youngest children taking part.  The Semana Santa allows the full expression of popular piety and generally gets going through Brotherhoods.  While this seems to be a Medieval throw back many were created during the Counter-Reformation and even the Twentieth Century.  Let's have a quick check around Spain.

In Leon the Holy Week has than 15,000 penitents on the streets. Processions begin on "Viernes de Dolores" (the Friday in the week before Holy Week) and last until Easter Sunday. The most notable of all the processes is the  "Procesion de los Pasos", also known as the "Procesion del Encuentro" (Procession of the Meeting). During this nine-hour slog procession, about 4,000 penitents carry thirteen "pasos" around all the city. The most solemn moment is El Encuentro (The Meeting) when the pasos representing Saint John and La Dolorosa face one to the other and are "bailados" (penitents move the paso as if Saint John and La Dolorosa were dancing).

A more secular procession, is called Entierro de Genarín, the "Burial of Genarín". In 1929 on Holy Thursday night, a poor alcoholic called Genaro Blanco was run over by the first rubbish truck in León. The procession consists of a march through the city bearing Orujo at the head of the procession; at the spot by the face of the city walls where the man was run over, a bottle of Orujo and twenty-seven oranges are left in commemoration. 

We’ve been to Ferrol.  In Ferrol from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday 25 processions go over the three oldest neighborhoods of the town organized by 5 different "cofradías." This processions are composed by "tronos" which carry statues of Christ, the Virgin Mary and other saints on them. These tronos are richly adorned with golden and silver, and decorated with numerous flowers. These statues are accompanied by devotees wearing habits and capirotes and carrying candles. These people are commonly called "capuchones." Moreover, the processions are also accompanied by music played by brass bands.

Let us end in Malaga.  These celebrations are over 500 years.  The Processions start on Palm Sunday and continue until Easter Sunday with the most dramatic and solemn on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Images from the Passion on huge ornate "tronos" (floats or thrones) some weighing more than 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) and carried by more than 250 members of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, shape the processions that go through the streets with penitents dressed in long purple robes, often with pointed hats, followed by women in black carrying candles. Drums and trumpets play solemn music and occasionally someone spontaneously sings a mournful saeta dedicated to the floats as it makes its way slowly round the streets.

The Baroque taste of the religious brotherhoods and associations, along with the great amount of processional materials that they have been accumulating for centuries, result in a street stage of exuberant art, full of color and majesty. Many brotherhoods were affected by the burning churches in 1931 and an important part of their heritage was destroyed (i.e. trousseaus, imagery, and other equipment) during the Spanish Civil War. In the years following it, revival was slow but it recovered with much greater numbers than before. Also, by the 1970s, Cofradías nuevas began to be formed in the city, and some old brotherhoods which had been forgotten, were reorganized by young people as: Salud, Descendimiento, Monte Calvario and many more others to adapt to the changing times.

Tomorrow we go on northwards.