Following the Man with the Red Flag

Friday, April 22, 2011
Seville, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands
Seville during "Holy Week" is the religious equivalent of Rio de Janeiro during Mardi Gras! It is ground zero for the religious parades that take place in many Spanish towns and cities during Semana Santa. In place of Rio's samba schools, Seville has “brotherhoods”, each representing a different church. On each evening during the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, the brotherhoods parade through the narrow streets of Seville’s ancient town centre carrying massive, richly carved and decorated tableaux depicting life-sized scenes from Christ’s Passion. Each tableaux, weighing more than a ton, is carried by relays of “bearers” (every gym in town emptied of its keenest iron pumpers!), who change places every 100 yards or less (it’s particularly hard to manoeuvre the massive platforms around tight corners). The tableaux are led by a thousand or more hooded and bare footed penitents ("nazarenos") each carrying a metre-long candle. The garb worn by the penitents (and subsequently “hijacked” by the Klu Klux Klan) is white, black or purple. The hoods have just tiny eye slits representing that the identity of the penitent is known only to God. The appearance of the penitents is very sinister, even more so because of the association of the outfit with the KKK! Many of the tableaux are followed by a large band of brass instruments, drums and bells and the tableaux move along rhythmically in time to the band’s music. Following the band in each procession are more hooded penitents, this group each carrying a wooden cross. The parade route takes each brotherhood from its own church into the heart of the old city, through the cathedral and back to their own church again – taking up to 12 hours! The parades mostly start in the early afternoon and finish in the early hours of the morning, but from Maundy Thursday into Good Friday, they are scheduled to go on through the night! (I say "scheduled", because this year, the weather turned and the parades were rained off). Not that it’s all serious stuff. Around 90% of Spaniards are Roman Catholic, but the truly devout faithful number far fewer. So for the hundreds of thousands who pack into the squares and maze of narrow streets for the parades, this is mostly just one giant street party! On Palm Sunday, everyone is out in their Sunday best – so many 20-somethings in dark suits, it could easily have been mistaken for an investment bankers’ jamboree!!The bars and restaurants overflow out into the streets, obviously time for family get-togethers (I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many teenagers earnestly trying to be nice to their grandparents!) and most people are just out for a jolly good time! The massive crowds are polite and good natured, there’s little pushing and shoving, few crowd control barriers, no obvious drunkenness and virtually no police presence. Imagine that!!!      

I have included many photos of the tableaux carried through the streets during the processions . They are all very different and quite impressive in their own right. Without being in the crowd, watching one of these massive things being rhthmically marched through narrow streets and around impossibly tight turns, it's hard to fully appreciate the specatcle. The pictures give at least some impression.... 

All of this of course, makes access to Seville’s old city centre at this time of year very challenging. And we were staying in an apartment right in the heart of the old city maze, just a stone’s throw from the Cathedral. Great for access to all the parades and partying, but our trusty GPS began to show signs of nervousness just approaching the old city (some new one-way system) but came close to a nervous breakdown once we crossed the threshold into the old city itself. Just couldn’t cope with the maze of streets and alleyways, tried to get us to make turns which would have been difficult in a micro car, but forget it in the minibus which is our transport! When half way down a small alleyway, it asked us to make a U-turn, we all threw in the towel, pulled into a hotel unloading bay and called the contact person for the flat we had rented . With a baby screaming in the background, she assured us that we were very close and she would send somebody out to rescue us. Antonio duly appeared. Not much in the way of English, but he did get us to understand that he didn’t have much time for this as he was meeting his cousin to watch that evening’s Real Madrid-Barcelona game. No room in our car, so he set off down the street on foot, through the Saturday afternoon crowds, with us driving behind. Not to the flat as we had expected (the blurb on the internet had indicated parking at the accommodation itself), but to an underground parking garage on the edge of the old city. It only took another 30 minutes of careful maneuvering to squeeze into the tiniest of parking spaces and extract us and all of our luggage, back out into the street and off to the flat. Literally at the trot, (remember the all-important match that evening!) through the crowds, laden down with all the suitcases trying to picture the route we were taking so that we would be able to find the car again!

This held us in good stead though as within a day we were almost “locals” . We could distinguish one alleyway from another and manage almost 100 yards without peering at a map. The old city was laid out during Moorish times around 1000 years ago when structures were built close together and streets narrow to keep the sun out and residents cooler during the very hot summers and also to make life harder for any potential invader. Although Christians re-took Seville in the mid-13th century, there are still many signs of Moorish influence, not least in the Cathedral (as well as many other churches) which began life as a mosque. The Giralda, the tall bell-tower which dominates the Cathedral and is the symbol of Seville, was the minaret of a mosque which then had a belfry added. The city’s Alcazar – fortress and royal palaces, was also laid out by the Moors, but even one of the palaces within the walls built a century after the “Reconquista” by a Christian king is heavily Moorish as that was the fashion in the 14th century. The Cathedral itself is a rather impressive structure. According to a proudly displayed certificate from the Guinness Book of Records, it is the world's largest cathedral by floor size, exceeding even St Peter's. The interior is again an exercise in over-the-top decoration and ornateness! The main altar is some massively ornate construction of pure gold - probably also in the Guinness Book of Records somewhere! Another proud feature is the tomb of Christopher Columbus - or at least 60% of him. The identity of the remains of his remains was recently confirmed by DNA testing, although where the remainder of him is, remains a mystery!!!    

Finally, no visit to Andalucia is complete without flamenco. We found a performance going on in a small interior courtyard which provided a backdrop and atmosphere for a mesmerising demonstration. A fitting finale to Semana Santa!

Comments

arthur 7 iris
2011-04-23

Harvey how long have you been involved with the klu klux klan?

Jane
2011-04-24

Sounds as though Antonio would fit well here in sport loving Australia. He had his priorities right. John would have been keen to get back to car racing.

Hope Easter celebration is all that you wished for Noelene.

Dec Doogan
2011-04-24

Reading over the reports of the journey so far it is a fascinating digest of the trip and conveys what it is like to be there. The only thing now you have to add is a cross reference to real estate schools and recommendations on where to live!
Happy Easter to you all. That is if I can say that to you David!

Lexie
2011-04-25

Your travel blogs are wonderful reading, great photos.
Lots of love to you all

Anne Cobuzzi
2011-04-27

Hi and thanks for sharing! we are headed to Seville to see our daughter in May who is living in Huelva. She said the same things about Semana Santa- they have many celebrations in Spain and are off from school for all of them! Your stories are the best! Glad to hear Sandra did not fall into the water at Gibraltar!!

2025-02-07

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