Friday, March 21, 2008

Semana Santa

In Spain, the whole week before Easter (this past week) is celebrated with processions and religious ceremonies.  Spain is renowned in the world for its Holy Week celebrations, and some of the most elaborate occur right in this area, and tonight we went to our first procession!

Semana Santa 007

During the processions, which occur throughout the week, pasos are carried through the streets.  A paso is a lifelike wood sculpture of individual scenes of the events that happened between Jesus' entry in Jerusalem and his burial, or images of the Virgin Mary showing restrained grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the images are of great antiquity and artistic masterworks. These pasos (which usually weigh over a metric tonne) are physically carried on the neck of volunteers (usually from the age of 24 to 48) who are hidden inside the platforms, making them seem to move all on their own.