Semana Santa en Sevilla

Semana Santa (or holy week) in Sevilla- now that is a sight to see!  Spain is historically a very Catholic country and because of this, almost every city and town in Spain has activities for Semana Santa, but Sevilla has the most famous processions.  The city pretty much completely shuts down and people from all over Spain come to see the amazing processions that the city puts on. 

I went to el centro twice during the week to see the processions.  The first time, I just went with my friend Kristen and we had absolutely no idea what we were doing.  We just followed where all of the people were going and came across people wearing black hoods and capes.  Now these costumes look like the costumes that the KKK wore, but there is no relation between the KKK and these processions.  These holy week traditions started happening years before the KKK even existed. 

The next day that I went to the processions, I went with Gonzalo, Rebekah, and Rebekah's boyfriend who was visiting from the U.S.  This was a much more rewarding experience because we had a true Sevillano with us to explain what in the world was going on!

This time we actually got to see a paso, which is pretty much a float of like-life wooden sculptures that depict different scenes.  The one that we saw was of the Virgin Mary showing restrained grief for the torture and killing of her son (there is a picture below).  Each paso is carried by between 25-50 men, who support the structure with their shoulders and necks.  Some men even walk barefoot!  They are hidden inside the paso and cannot be seen by the viewers, so it looks as if the paso is moving by itself.  It was so cool to see!