Semana Santa (Easter)

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the most important celebration in the Spanish calendar. This is particularly so in the south. Here the people of each town have divided themselves into "cofradias", or brotherhoods, and they celebrate the holy feast in a spirit which is rather more competitive than it is pious.

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There are generally at least two cofradia in each town, and they each own several painted statuettes representing Our Lord and Our Lady. Each evening during Semana Santa these painted effigies are paraded around the streets borne on ostentatiously elaborate "tronos", or thrones. The rival factions vy with one another to produce the biggest, heaviest, most glitzy tronos.

Only the select few have the privilege of helping to carry a trono. The rest of the company escort it along the street dressed in satin robes and gowns. In theory these "Nazarenes", as they are called, are anonymous penitents. Each wears a tall, cone-shaped hat incorporating a mask; thus, all look alike and the identity of each is a secret known only to God. In reality, everybody in the crowd seems to recognise the participants, despite their disguise, and the mood is not so much one of sorrow and penance as of pomp and ceremony.


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