Like Huey Lewis and the News “we’re gonna go back in tiiimmee…”
(click on the link if you want to watch an amazing music video. Or, for an even more amazing Huey video featuring Christopher Lloyd, click here. And I digress…)

a traditional Semana Santa "paso" complete with a statue and candles

At the end of March Spain celebrated Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It’s possibly the most important cultural tradition that exists in Spain. There is absolutely nothing comparable to it in the United States.

Spain is known as being very Catholic country, but the majority of people aren’t what most of us would consider “practicing Catholics.” They have made their First Communion (another big celebration here) and confirmation, but don’t attend church regularly. (Of course there are some who are very devoted to the church and attend every Sunday, but they are not the majority.) But the people, despite their Sunday mass attendance, still very much embrace all of the religious traditions, the processions of Semana Santa being one of the most important.

In the photo above you can see a traditional “paso”: a large platform bearing a statue (or multiple statues) and usually candles. The processions involve the paso being taken from the church and walked through the town/city, along the official route (lined with chairs for special people to sit in) then returned back to the church. Many, many people come out into the streets to watch the processions and some even follow along their entire route, which can last anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.

But the absolute most incredible part about the pasos is that they are carried through the streets on the shoulders/back of the necks of men. Have a look:

The paso carriers have a large turban-type wrap on their head and neck where they support the structure. They then walk (synchronized and slowly) moving the paso through the streets. The pasos are accompanied by a band and penitentes, who bear a striking resemblance to the KKK, and a lot of incense. Depending on the church/saint of the procession the penitentes will wear different colored robes and masks/hats.

pentitentes leading a procession in Sevilla

The processions start on Palm Sunday and take place every day of Holy Week, with the most important ones taking place on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. There are multiple ones every day. So for example, on the Monday in Huelva there were 3 different processions taking place. They usually begin in the late afternoon and continue into the night. There is one on Holy Thursday that leaves at 12am and goes all through the night. Easter weekend is not even a big deal, it’s the processions during the week that are more important. In Huelva, for example, there was only one on Holy Saturday and one on Easter Sunday, but they were not the most important ones.

Brett, who was visiting me from Scotland for the week, and I went out on Palm Sunday to watch the processions. It was really exciting at first, there was a buzz in the air. Tons of people were out in the streets and there were little stalls set up selling hamburgers, cotton candy, and churros. It was almost like there was a carnival going on. We went out again on Monday night and watched a few more.

On Tuesday we went into Sevilla to meet up with my childhood friend Katelyn McDowell and her husband, Chris, who were on a Spring Break trip to Spain. On Tuesday night Brett and I had to walk from one side of the city center to the other to meet Katie and Chris for dinner. What should have been a 10 (or at the most 15) minute walk turned into 1 hour of dodging through city streets and re-routing every time we ran into another procession. It was nuts! That was when were officially “over” the processions. Before they were kind of intriguing, now, not so much.

Here is a video I shot of one of the processions in Huelva. Please note all the people crowded around the paso walking up the hill with it, and don’t forget that’s it’s moving and swaying only because there are people under there carrying it…

me sitting on the remains of a castle in Aracena, a town in the mountains of Huelva

Besides watching pasos and penitentes, Brett and I also explored a lot of the province of Huelva. The first night we went to see Recre, Huelva’s soccer team, play against Murcia. They lost, but it was fun to get to a game anyways. The rest of the week we visited two of Huelva’s beaches (Punta Umbria and Mazagon), the castle in Niebla, the beautiful mountain town of Aracena, and El Rocio, a small western-looking town (think lots of dirt roads and horses) that’s home to a large celebration of the Virgina of El Rocio at the end of May. The capital city of Huelva may not be the most beautiful or offer architectural gems, but I think the province as a whole is really beautiful. You can’t beat gorgeous beaches, serene mountains, and delicious shrimp and jamon (our special type of cured ham)!!