semana santa. jason & miya’s visit. and the week after.

Pictures: 1) Miya, Jason & I by the Guadalquivir. 2) Amir, Daniela, Mal, Brian and I at Amir's apartment. 3) The paso of La Macarena. 4) The Virgin from La Esperanza de Triana. 5) Nazarenos from La Esperanza de Triana. 6) Look at all the people on the Triana Bridge!

We came back from morocco on Wednesday night and I was sooooo tired. I slept in on Thursday because we had no school for the rest of the week because it was Semana Santa (Holy week) so we were on vacation. Another reason we had the week off too is because Sevilla is the most famous place in the WHOLE WORLD for Semana Santa processions. – that’s what Ana Claudio says anyways, and she isn’t just saying that because she’s a Sevillana. it really is true.

We all planned our trips perfectly so that we would be in Sevilla for the end of Semana Santa because that is when the best processions go on & the most important part of the week is. Thursday night was la madrugada – which literally means ‘early morning,’ but it’s the night when the most famous processions happen and people stay up the whole night to watch all of the processions. Let me explain the whole Semana Santa processions before I tell you about my experience with La madrugada though. --- so during the entire week there are these things called Pasos – which are like floats that the churches spend the year building, they are ornate and beautiful and they are made of gold. and “most brotherhoods carry two floats: a float with a Christ, representing the distinct stages of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and a float with a Dolorosa (Mary the Virgin in pain) under a canopy. Some brotherhoods even carry three floats. Resuming, in the eight days of Semana Santa, a total of 57 brotherhoods, carry their 116 floats from their church to the Cathedral and back, in the company of around 60,000 brothers participating in their different appearances: Nazarenos (Nazarenes/Penitents), Costaleros (float carriers), acolytes, bandas de musica, saetas, and women who wear el traje de mantilla. During holy week the Cofradías (Brotherhoods or Fraternities) process in penitence through the (many narrow) streets of the city, from their church to the Cathedral and back, taking the shortest possible route, as decreed in the rule of the ordinances by Cardenal Niño de Guevara in the 17th century. Starting on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday), and ending on Domingo de Resurrección (Easter Sunday), there are 57 brotherhoods that pay the religious visist to the Cathedral of Seville, the third largest Cathedral in the world.” http://www.sol.com/semana-santa/

The Nazarenos are the men in hooded (KKK-look alike) outfits. The KKK actually copied Semana Santa processions and Spaniards were not happy about it. But the Nazarenos wear the outfits/hooded masks to show anonymity in their walk of penitence. There are 20-40 costaleros that actually carry the pasos from underneath and they carry them for hours on their backs, which weigh over 2,000 pounds. Each procession can last from 4 to 14 hours, and have 3,000 nazerenos. Seatas are flamenco singers that take part in the processions but they sing flamenco music acapela from balconies near the churches that the pasos are going into. also, there are women who wear el traje de mantilla - it's like a black lace veil. they wear them on thursday/friday/saturday to mourn the death of christ. The processions last hours and hours all that partake in the processions – cross bearers, float carriers, acolytes, music bands, and nazarenos do it so that Jesus will save their sins. It was a very different cultural experience to watch and be a part of. I can see how many Americans are set off by it and don’t really understand it. But for Christian/Catholic people, it is a really big deal. It reminded me about what Easter really is for, so I think that was important to me. It was good that Jason came and visited this week too because it reminded me of Good Fridays/Easter Sundays at church when we were younger.

So about my experience with la madrugada… well, Thursday was the day that everyone got home from their trips. Mal/Daniela got home from Italy/France/Switzerland and Brian/Amir got home from Madrid/Toledo and so we were all reunited!! It was good that I got to rest on Wednesday night/Thursday day before they all got home. Anyways, so we hung out at Amir’s and we were all so happy to be back together again also, we swapped stories of our travels and just enjoyed spending time all together. So we were there until 1:30ish in the morning because La Esperanza de Triana (one of the most famous processions of la madrugada) started on the Triana Bridge at 2. Amir and Daniela were really tired so they didn’t come with us but Mal, Brian, and I went to get a caffeine fix before the night began… my night began at 1:30am. After I got my coffee, we went over to the Triana bridge and waited for the pasos to come. We were there for a good while and we saw the paso with Christ but we wanted to wait and see the Virgin also. Merillat, Traci, Brett, and a few of our other friends were in a bar down the road so we went to go meet up with them. Then with our whole group we were looking for a good spot to watch the Virgin come by.. mind you, there are like millions of people out and its hard to move in the streets because everyone is crowding to see this procession. Anyways, so I got split up from Merillat, but Mallory and Jacob were next to me and all of a sudden the people started shouting and running the other way. Then at once, we were all running too. I heard Merillat and Mallory screaming and trying to grab on to me as people were trampling Mal and I. Mal ended up falling and cutting her hand open but Merillat grabbed me before I hit the ground. Apparently a fight broke out and people were pushing and running the other direction because they didn’t want to get hit, and it caused a huge wave of running. NOT GOOD. it was really scary and not fun. But other than that our madrugada experience was just fine, after the running happened we waited from afar until we heard the music of the paso coming. Then we also went and saw La Macarena, which is another really really famous paso. I liked them both but I think I liked La Macarena more (it was just prettier and in the bandas de musica – music bands the players were wearing outfits with feathery hats = so pretty). By the end of the night, my feet were killing me because we were standing and walking for 6 hours straight!!

I went home and slept until lunch the next day because I was so tired! Then we all met to get sangria @ brown sugar (at 4:30 on Friday, April 10th - insidejoke we had to remind everyone when/where/what time to meet & we had to make plans ahead of time bc mallory had no phone) but it was closed bc of the holiday as well. So we just ended up hanging out in the downstairs of mama terra. We ran into Amer, Jeffrey, and Justin and spent the afternoon just talking. It was time well spent.

The week of Semana Santa was also the week of Jason’s visit… it was really good to see him & Miya. We tried to see each other while we were both in Florence but it ended up not working out. On Wednesday, I took them to Plaza de Espana, Parque Maria Luisa, and the museums in the park too – but they were closed bc of Semana Santa holidays, and we also sat by the river and enjoyed the afternoon. Then, I saw them on Saturday and took them to Alameda where we went to a little café and on the way home we ran into a Semana Santa procession. And when we finally got out of the crowd, we went to go have churros by the Triana bridge. Saturday night, we tried to go to a Flamenco Bar but Jas and I both ran out of saldo at the same time so it was kind of crazy getting a hold of each other. But on Sunday morning, Jas, Miya, Amir, and I went to the mercadillo and I got some aceitunas for merienda (olives for snacks) and made sure they tried them because Sevilla is famous for olives, ya know. It was a great weekend with them and they were wonderful visitors. I was just sad that they didn’t get to see Sevilla when it wasn’t so crazy with millions of tourists for Semana Santa.

Last week was good too. Going back to school was difficult after being gone for so long but I got back into the swing of things easily. Highlights of last week: trying to explain to Manoli who zach efron & miley cyrus are – they came on the television during lunch one day and I was telling her how much I love miley cyrus. Also, I love being one of manoli’s niñas – Manoli has given us so many sopresas (surprises) in the past weeks! Oh my gosh, it’s amazing and I love it! when it’s just me, Merillat, and traci she gives us strawberries & chocolate or icecream, or éclairs, or little chocolate muffins for merienda (afternoon snacks!) and even on Friday, when I had breakfast by myself before I left for Portugal she gave me a kiwi with breakfast (fue un secreto grande porque Isabel fue en la casa todavía!–it was a big secret because liz was still in the house!)

Adventuring with ali – Monday we went to El Corte Ingles (a big department store with imported products – so if you want anything American you will most likely find it there) bc I wanted to buy brian peanut butter for saving all my italy pictures, then we got like the best ice cream ever and enjoyed the afternoon walking around Sevilla, then on Wednesday, ali and I went to puerta jerez and we read Sabor a Chocolate, which is this book that we are reading for Ana Claudio’s class, but I love it because it’s a book that I actually enjoy reading and its difficult enough for me that I learn new words/grammatical structures while reading it but its also easy enough to where I understand so much of what is going on that its not frustrating. Anyways, so Ali and I sat in puerta jerez and read but it was really windy outside so we went into this cute café by the University of Sevilla and we had coffee. It also started to sprinkle a little so we moved inside. Then when we were done reading, we went and explored Parque de los principes (which is just another park, but its in Los Remedios, near our houses). It was a good day. On Thursday, we just sat by the river, walked around, and chatted in puerta jerez.

Friday we left for lagos, Portugal and you will hear more about that trip in my other blog. But last week was really good and I can’t believe it’s the end of April already!! My time here is going by so fast, that I never want it to end!! Alright, I am going to go take a siesta and then afternoon adventure with ali, I will write more later. Hasta luego!