Easter week in Seville Spain

We planned our first trip to Spain with a goal of seeing all the pageantry of Easter in Seville. Boy did we get pageantry! Too much of it. In writing this it's my goal of letting others know what to expect rather than to complain. After all, what does it matter if you lose a night's sleep. You can sleep when you're dead, right?

Our trip started with a visit to Madrid, from there we drove down to Cordoba for two nights. We awoke on the Sunday before Easter to a crowd gathering just below our second floor apartment located two blocks away from the Mezquita. To our astonishment a huge procession began passing by, right below our balcony. With a birds-eye view we stood out and watched the 30 or so strong men carry the ornate religious floats right past us. Afterwards we congratulated ourselves on unknowingly renting such a well situated apartment. This was the start of Easter week in Spain.

Later, on Holy Thursday, we arrived in Seville. Our apartment was located on Calle Sierpes, which when we rented it we thought it might be a little out of the way. Not! Calle Sierpes is one of the major shopping areas just north of Plaza Nueva. As we walked to our apartment for the first time you couldn't help but notice hundreds of chairs being set up in the plaza. It was a sunny and very pleasant day and I was expecting to walk around and explore the city in my casual clothes. I was really out of place. Everyone was dressed in their finest, men in suits, women it the traditional black dresses with the black thing-a-ma-jig in their hair. Everywhere throughout the old sections thousands of chairs were being setup and partitioned off from the walkways.

Towards the evening we began hearing marching bands. Crowds gathered along the narrow streets, and soon people in hoods, much like the KKK of America, began to lead the processions. It was later explained to me that the people in the hooded pointy hats were 'penitents', sinners as we all are considered in the Catholic church. We made our way north towards the Plaza de la Encarnacion, where the Metropol Parasol is located. Thousands of people where gathered to watch the religious floats emerge from the cathedral. Even though I was wearing my moneybelt, I discovered that a loose 50 euro bill in my pocket was missing. Hmm, strange. We made our way back down an extremely crowded Calle Sierpes. Side streets were blocked off and it was obvious that the procession would eventually go by this street. We asked a policeman if we could sit in one of the numerous empty chairs. He informed us these were for people who paid for these chairs, that these chairs were paid for months in advance, much like concert tickets, and were very expensive. Semana Santa is a BIG deal in Seville. Towards 23:00 we decided to return to our apartment and call it a night. It took a long time just to walk a few blocks. At our 3rd floor apartment we looked down on the crowd on the street below. Another procession was going by. We went to bed to the sound of crowd noise and a marching band. Keep in mind this was a very nice apartment with well insulated windows. We assumed everything would eventually taper off and people would go home. Nope. Marching bands and drummers continued through the night. Finally at about 8am, with very little sleep, I got out of bed and grabbed my camera to record yet another marching band coming by. There were STILL hundreds of people lining the street below. Amazing! They had been there all night long!

We didn't know that Thursday is the big celebration. There is a list that is published of when and where these Semana Santa processions will go by. So be warned. We would run into them over the next few days, with Easter Sunday being strangely quiet. Getting from one place to another is challenging. However if you want a little insight on what it is to be Spanish this is a real education. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I would like to have that 50 back though.