An enormous apology for a long overdue blog update! As the semester here draws nearer and nearer to a close, I find myself being buried under a growing pile of composiciones, examenes and (OK, I admit) the temptation of a sandy beach and 80°+ weather. My theory regarding the workload increase is that the professors are making up for lost time, considering the different holidays we've had off from school over the past few months; the most recent being Semana Santa, or Holy Week, which is celebrated the week leading up to but not including Easter Sunday.
From what I've witnessed, Semana Santa in Cádiz province is celebrated with great fervour and passion. As the provincial capital, Cádiz holds some tremendous, extravagant processions-- on par with those of all the other capitals in Andalucía. Strictly speaking this is a religious festival, but for most of the week it seemed as though solemnity wasn't the keynote. There was a lot of carousing and frivolity, and once again los gaditanos lined the streets and crowded into the plazas (where large bandstands had been erected) to munch on kilos of sunflower seeds while the processions continued their deliberate marches. This is Semana Santa in essence: The marching in procession of brotherhoods of the church and penitents, followed by elaborate floats on which sit seventeenth century images of the Virgin or Christ. The most impressive element is the man-power, since underneath the decor and all but entirely hidden from public view are the men who haul these floats on their shoulders and shuffle with their burden through the streets.
What's startling is the dress code during Semana Santa. Men of all ages are dressed from head to toe in Nazareno robes, including sandles and Capirotes, which are tall, cone-shaped head dresses (and the cause of some initial astonishment). While some Catholic groups wear Nazareno robes in red, purple, blue, or black, there are others that instead wore only white. Our Spanish friends couldn't understand why Jason and I were shocked at first, but the image of 70 or 80 men carrying fire and crosses, robed in white and wearing coned head dresses and Capuces (another part of the head dress that covers the face)... the image as a whole had such a terrible connotation that it took a day or two of watching the processions for Jason and I to get accustomed to seeing it.
The music, however, I fell in love with almost right away. Full bands accompany the processions and cycle through the same four or five exuberant songs, while a drum line follows behind striking a powerful and unfaltering tempo. Throughout the week, the processions leave their respective churches all over the city from early afternoon onwards (sometimes, in the black of night), snaking through the city and back to their resting place many, MANY hours later, but I could have listened to the music much longer than they could have kept playing it (which is already an admirably long time).
I hope to post some pictures soon! I think I captured a few nice ones thanks to a gaditano friend who let us watch the processions from her balcony. However, I'm going to use my overwhelming amount of homework as an excuse again to explain why I haven't yet moved photos from my camera to my computer. In the meantime, here are some videos I pulled from YouTube to give you a better idea of what I saw!
The first is a promo video for 2012, with images from 2011. It's professionally done and does a great job of conveying the intensity and emotion of Semana Santa:
This other video might be a bit boring visually, but I really wanted to share the music with you!
Thanks again for reading!
