Semana Santa

This week has been a big deal in Sevilla. It's semana santa, or holy week and for it there are lots of pasos. Each paso is similar to a parade and is from a certain brotherhood. They can be from a specific church, neighborhood, ethnicity, or profession. Lots of the people participate because they're parents and grandparents had been a part of it. For each paso the members are dressed in robes with pointy hats and look like the kkk (there is no affiliation). The brothers walk in a procession along with the actual pasos, or floats. Each has one with Jesus and then later in the procession is Mary. Some of the pasos have bands, but others are completely silent. The pasos have specific routes that they have been doing for hundreds of years. Some of the biggest ones walk for 12 hours.

Thursday afternoon I met up with lanae, Rachel, allyson, and Ashley to see one. We saw the cigarillos, which used to be made up of all the tobacco workers. We stood at watched it all, which probably took at least an hour. The kids stay entertained by having the brothers drip wax on to an aluminium foil ball. Some kids had big ones and had kept adding to the same one for years.

brothers

wax balls

Jesus

Friday night was a big time for the pasos. It is the madrugada, so lots of them start early in the morning and go for a long time. I went out and saw el gran poder pass. This one was silent and very serious. After that one went by we found la macerena which had a band and was more lively. Tourists come from all over to see semana Santa here, so when you try to get anywhere in the center of the city it is so hard to get through. Once we wanted to go home we had to make our way around the processions and I didn't get home till 4:30 am. It was late, but I'm glad I went since Friday it rained. When it rains everything is canceled because the floats are so old.

Jesus 

Mary

El gran poder

Since nothing was going on Friday, Lanae,  Rachel, and I went to try semana Santa desserts. Anna recommended I go to la campana, a bakery and get a torrijas, so I did. It was a lot like French toast, but with tons of honey soaked into it and covering it. It was very delicious!

Torrijas

Saturday was a beautiful day! The high was 70 and it was so sunny. My mom told me I had to leave, so she could clean our room, so Ashley and I headed out to Plaza de Espana. It was finally the perfect day to rent a row boat. It took us a little getting used to, but soon enough we were rowing pros. It was lots of fun! Afterward we walked through Maria Park and back through the plaza. We found an artist selling his watercolors, and we both bought a painting of the Plaza de Espana.

Row Boat

Me with my painting

They don't do much here for Easter Sunday, just the week before. So Lanae and I went to a protestant church close by. We sang a few songs that I knew, so that was nice and one of the older ladies made torrijas, which were delicious. Then for lunch we had torrijas for dessert.