The Week of Seville

Seville gets dressed up for Holy Week. The Sevillians go out onto the street to watch the parades do their procession of penitence, which usually arouses a lot of emotion.

Celebration

This festival commemorates the passion, the death and the resurrection of Christ by way of processions that carry out a route of penitence, which means, a journey from their church to the Cathedral and back.

Its origin traces back to the 17th century as a way to combat the protestant reform, which wanted to bring religion closer to the people. Notwithstanding, there is evidence that processions existed from the middle ages. Although considered to be a very religious festival, today it’s much more to do with culture than with religion, and is celebrated and followed by the majority of people that wouldn’t consider themselves to be believers. It’s purely an important part of the Sevillian culture. Although, naturally, Catholics celebrate it with great fervour.

Brotherhoods and Processions

The processions are made up of the floats of from a brotherhood. Each brotherhood has between 2 and 3 floats, and in the space of a week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, a total of over 60 brotherhoods make the processions.

They represent scenes from the passion and the death of Jesus, portrayed using painted wooden sculptures. Some of these sculptures are more than 300 years old, and are great works of huge historical and artistic importance. Therefore, seeing them moving through the streets on raised floats and being carried on the shoulders of people is a spectacle.

These people are called ‘costaleros’ and they train all year for this moment. They are under the float and can’t see anything other than their feet and those of their colleagues, therefore they have to be guided by the ‘foreman’ who gives them the relevant instructions. It’s a true miracle to see their expertise in lifting, turning and carrying the float to the rhythm of the marches played by a band.

Route

The route of the processions is different for each brotherhood, nevertheless, the last part before arriving to the Cathedral is the same for all of them and it’s called the Official Course. This last route isn’t accessible except for those who have paid for a chair on the official course, therefore the city’s visitors during Holy Week can’t walk through the great Avenida de la Constitution, or in San Francisco Square as the way is cut off.

Nazarenes (Natharenos)

One of the most characteristic things, and which attract a lot of attention from the foreigners are the Nazarenes. These are people who walk in front of the floats, normally out of devotion for the brotherhood, following the whole route of the procession. The thing that catches attention are their outfits, which are long hooded tunics with a pointed support on their heads, called a capirote, which supports the hood which only has holes for the eyes, something which for us is completely normal, and has nothing to do with the racist organisations that were started many years after.

Visiting Seville during Holy Week

Coming to Seville during Holy Week involves, on the one hand, living one of the largest traditional holidays and looking at the people of the place living it with great gusto. But, on the other hand, if all you want is to wander peacefully and lose yourself in the streets this is not the best time to do it, as many of the ways are cut off and the processions stop you from walking through it. However, it is one of the best spectacles in the world which without doubt is worth seeing at least once in your life. 

Images source: Flickr. Sandra Vallaure.