Semana Santa in La Ciudad

So after my trip from Morocco, I was back in just enough time to catch the end of Semana Santa, or Holy Week. The week is a pretty big deal in Sevilla, and they have a LOT of processions and parades and it’s pretty much one big week of solemn reflection on the death of Jesus. (They actually don’t really do much with the Resurrection, mainly just the death.)

Thursday it rained for most of the morning and afternoon, so a lot of the processions were cancelled. But then before dinner I headed out to a church downtown and caught the procession called La Pasión, which started out with a bunch of people in outfits that look almost identical to the outfits the Ku Klux Klan wears (I’m being serious, I’ll have pictures up eventually so you can see) and then was followed with people carrying these huge float/image things of Jesus and Mary. The whole thing takes FOREVER to go through, literally hours and hours. Some of them last all night and they walk for 12 hours straight. It’s pretty crazy. 

But anyway, after that procession I went and got some dinner before heading to some more professions that started after midnight. EVERYBODY (including my 15-year-old host brother) was out watching them, and we watched two or three before heading back home at 4 am.

On Good Friday, Laura and I walked out to Triana (a district kinda far from where I live) and caught another procession called La Esperanza de Triana (The hope of Triana, who is one of the patron saints of Sevilla). Then we went to this amazing organic restaurant and had tofu. In the afternoon we bought fútbol tickets and headed out to yet some more processions before hanging out downtown for the night.

On Saturday, we had all had enough of processions, plus there weren’t that many more anyway, so Laura, Janette, and I headed out for a VERY long walk to a park out in Triana called el Parque de los Príncipes. We hung out there for a while, then after dinner we went out to the fútbol game against a Madrid team. The Sevillanos are CRAZY about their soccer, it was pretty nuts. People were yelling soooooo loud obscenities and then singing all these different fight songs. It was a good time. But unfortunately, we lost 2-1. But the other team was ranked higher anyway, so I guess they were better.

Easter Sunday my roommate and I headed down to the big cathedral for mass, which was the weirdest mass either of us had ever been too. It just had music and chanting for the first 45 minutes, and then when it finally started it was still kinda different. I was pretty happy because I could understand the lessons and sermon, although I guess it is kinda expected that I’d understand most of it since I already knew ahead of time what to expect out of the readings. But anyway, we left after the sermon because we had been there for an hour and a half already and didn’t know where the service was going.

Then for lunch I finally had dessert!!!!! We have only had dessert one other time at my house, so it was pretty amazing. It was this delicious thing that was like cheesecake, but better.

And unfortunately, that was the end of Semana Santa. The most unfortunate part was probably that I had to head to class after what seemed like the longest break of my life. But I guess I am here to study …

Also, here are some pics from Morocco

Morocco