An eventful Semaña Santa in Sevilla

Hello y'all,

Welcome back to another installment of my blogging. Today I'll be giving you a brief overview of the wonderful celebration of Semaña Santa (Holy Week) in Seville. This is a week long celebration of Easter. What a great event it was to experience, and I am so happy I decided not to travel. When I first saw my schedule of coming to Seville, and saw that all my classes would be cancelled the week of April 3rd - April 7th I thought to myself, "why not spend this time traveling around Europe." But after talking with some coworkers and locals they suggested I stay and experience the whole week. So I decided to spend the whole last week in Seville, and truly take in the whole adventure of Semaña Santa.  

Leading up to the beginning of the week I'll admit I was very scared as everyone I talked to was telling me that millions of people come to the city center and celebrate. Its impossible to get anywhere on time, the crowds are huge, and its hot. Personally, I don't mind crowds but I also don't like crowds, so I was constantly thinking why am I staying here.

Well Sunday afternoon hit and the processions started. Ever since I went to that first processions I found myself hooked. Throughout the remained of the week you could see me trying to catch as many processions as possible. I sacrificed a lot of time to going and watch these processions. What a life changing experience each processions was as most of them were very similar, but everyone had a little different twists to it. For those that don't know what a procession is, is it is like a parade in the states. Brotherhoods of Churches walk in two lines dressed in masks and capes or carrying a float from their Church to the Cathedral in the center and back to their Church. The people in the masks and capes are called "penitents," the people carrying the float are called "costaleros," and finally the floats are called a "pasos." This is just a very brief summary of what kind of takes place during the week.

Personally I think the coolest part of the week was just seeing the support of the locals throughout the entire week. These processions literally take place for like 6-13 hours a day and everyone I went to no matter the time of the day was filled with supportive people. 

The big thing is, is that at each processions there are thousands of people lined up and waiting for the pasos and bands to walk by, and then they show appreciation by clapping. But like I said every procession is a little different so that was why I tried to attend as many as possible.

Below I have posted tons of pictures and videos that show how beautiful Semaña Santa is in Seville, and I am so happy that I decided to stay and experience it!

 


If you decided to study in Seville through SAIIE I would highly recommend attending at least two days of Semaña Santa as it is truly a wonderful event to take in. 

✌


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