Semana Santa

Well. Internet isn’t working and my soap isn’t on yet, so I guess I can devote the next half hour to describing Easter in Granada. Posting will occur whenever the internet decides to come back on, but I will continue to write as if I were going to post it right now. Before I launch into Semana Santa, those of you who have been following the flow of French kids will be happy to hear that there are two more boys here this week. They are also pretty funny, but not as loud or as tiny. Just found out one of them has 7 brothers and 4 sisters…yep, they’re Catholic! So, Semana Santa (Holy Week, but I’m sure you guys all knew that) in Spain is a Big Deal. I think it should at least be a big deal in the US with the hopes of someday becoming as Big a Deal as it is in Spain. It started with Palm Sunday. Lauren and I went to Mass with Lauren’s roommate and her roommate’s friend. We started out in the plaza in front of the Cathedral with the blessing of the palms done by the one and only Archbishop Winnie T. Pooh (by the way, I love him and think he’s an awesome, holy man of God… he just reminds me of Winnie the Pooh) accompanied by our favorite altar boy carrying the most impressive bit of palm art I’ve seen in my life. It puts the little crosses to shame. It was about 7 feet tall and was quiet cool. I thought I had a picture, but I can't find it. Oh well. I can’t remember when we did this, but at some point we had a little procession waving around our little olive branches and stopping every few feet so that Archbishop WTP could bless a baby or two. During Mass they played the huge organ for the first time. It was very loud and very cool. I’m not entirely sure that the organist was particularly good, but whatever, it was impressive and I wish they’d play it every Sunday instead of the little dinky one. Later that day, Lauren and I went procession hunting with the aforementioned Roommate and Friend. We found a spot on Gran Via and watched the biggest paso (refers to the float) Santa Cena go by accompanied by its Nazarenos and Camareras. The basic format of all these processions is that there are one or two pasos (usually one with Jesus and the other Mary) which are accompanied by people dressed up in robes (that unfortunately resemble the KKK, however, they’re all different colors) and carrying candles. Some of them carry banners or crosses etc. These people are practicing Catholics from the church that the floats belong to (each church has their own residing float) and are part of a particular group within their church. They come in all different shapes and sizes. The floats are carried by big dudes wearing funny hats and pads on their shoulders. They practice all year round and sometimes even dance with the float! It’s really, really cool. Here are some of them before trading shifts with the group currently carrying the float: Surrounding the Mary float are a bunch of women wearing black and wearing these fancy headdresses and carrying rosaries. There’s a band for each float (I swear, everyone must play an instrument, there are so many bands!) which fortunately are far enough apart that they don’t conflict much. There are a bunch of kids (also dressed up in robes) who are in charge of keeping candles lit and everyone in the procession sugared (little candies) and watered. Some of them are pretty darn small. Actually, there are small people involved in almost everything. It’s really cool. So Lauren and I went procession hunting almost every day sometimes accompanied by others, but sometimes just the two of us. It was all a good time, but by the end of the week we were exhausted and processioned out. We didn’t go to any on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, but went every other day. Generally we went out at night and stayed out until the wee hours. Saturday was the exception because it was the day of the big procession that was last done 100 years ago. We left at 3:45 to go find a spot and after much searching, found a pretty good place. Unfortunately the weather was pretty iffy and the statues can’t come out in the rain. So we waited two and a half hours before the first paso came by where we were.

This boy is holding a wax ball he made with the drippings from the candles. Everytime the procession stopped, the kids would come out and add to their wax balls.

While we were waiting, we got to know the people around us. When we first got to our spot, it was a place behind a family of four sitting, leaning and standing on a table from the bar close by, and an older couple. The older couple was soon joined by a big crowd of typical Spanish girls about our age. Complete with saggy pants and bad bangs. We were a little dismayed at the growing number of these girls that belonged to the older couple, but grew to appreciate them in time. Then a little later a group of four middle aged ladies came and stood around us. They were funny. However, the funniest was the family of four. The Mom looked a lot like my aunt Jennifer and the Dad looked like a pretty typical Spanish guy. The kids were Álvaro (5?) and Lucía (3).Álvaro was a hyper little guy who was definitely sugared up plenty. But his little sister really stole the show. She was a little blonde girl with a lot of personality. She was basically adorable. She even shared some of her little raspberry candies with us and the middle aged ladies and some of the girls. She's the little blonde girl in the corner: Shortly before the processions were going to come, a very clever lady from Madrid found a way into our group. In case you don’t know, it is really bad form to try to stand in front of people who have been waiting in the front for hours. Really. Bad. Form. Well, this lady found a very clever way to get a good view for her and her four year old daughter (also named Lucia). First, she came up to the older couple and asked some questions about the processions, acting as if she were just passing through. Then she got really interested in the conversation but assured everyone that she wasn’t going to stay. Next she started making comments about how excited little Lucia was to see the processions, but she’s so little it seemed like she really wouldn’t be able to…Yes. Well, little Lucia happened to be a little blonde four year old with big blue eyes and ringlets. While the conversation was going on between Older Couple and Mom, Lucia had made friends with all the Spanish girls. So by the time the processions came around, both Mom and Daughter had prime spots even though they hadn’t been there waiting very long at all. It was so cleverly done and little Lucia was so cute that no one really cared. In fact, they made a nice addition to our group. The two Lucias got to be friends pretty quick and the interaction between them was hilarious. It was really interesting to see how everyone responded to the little girls. The newcomer Mom basically at one point left Lucia in the care of everyone around, and no one minded! In fact, they were thrilled to share food with the little Lucia and pick her up and kiss her head and lift her up to see. Just as if everyone in our little circle of procession watchers had known each other for years. We saw the whole procession eventually despite rain delays and the fact that some of them had to be covered in plastic sheets in order to come out. It was cold and rainy, but I’m glad we went and stayed the whole time because the procession was a once in a lifetime event and the people were fun to watch. After the procession we both went home and ate dinner hurriedly and got ready for the vigil. I wore my red dress, but didn’t want to wear my heels to walk the 20 minutes to the Cathedral, so I wore my tennis shoes and took along my heels to change into. I got a lot of comments, but my feet didn’t fall off so I consider it a job well done. The vigil was impressive and very Spanish. For example, everyone first came into the Cathedral and found a seat. Then at 11:00, they announced that everyone should go outside to the plaza for the fire ceremony. So we got up and went out (but not everyone) and stood around in the plaza while Archbishop Winnie T. Pooh did the blessing etc. Then we noticed that some people had candles! Where were they getting them? From one (one!) basket up in the front (front!) by the bishop…where there was a huge mob of people. Pretty much impossible to fight one’s way to the candle basket, but everyone tried anyways. What a system! So then we all went back into the Cathedral, which looked really cool in the dark, and spread the flame. It worked…but was a tad hard in some places because not everyone managed to get a candle. Anyhow, it started. Turns out Archbishop Winnie T. Pooh can sing! Man! He was awesome! I loved the exultant here! He gave Dcn. Dan a run for his money. The psalm responses were nice enough, not like CTK, but at least it wasn’t the choir that we usually have. They were there on Holy Thursday and Good Friday so I was worried about the vigil. By the way, Holy Thursday and Good Friday happened, but were not really much out of the ordinary except that we did venerate the cross (the lady in line behind me kept poking me in the butt, it was really irritating) and the bishop did wash some feet. There was also a little procession just in the church that Lauren and I got sucked into because a little old lady handed Lauren a candle even though she was thinking that we’d have to leave now in order to get to lunch on time. But once she got the candle, we were in the procession whether we wanted to be or not, which ended up being just fine because it was short. Back to the vigil, the psalm responses got more and more flamencoey as they progressed. It was rather cool. There were no confirmation candidates, but there was a horde of babies to be baptized which took some time. Another cool thing was that all the kids came up after the gospel to sing the part in the sader where the youngest boy asks why this night is different from other nights. The main girl who sang was really good. Well. That was pretty much the vigil. It lasted until 3:15 and at the end as we were leaving they announced something about there being dancing afterwards. We were too tired, so we didn’t stay. We did have some teenage boy come up to us after Mass and ask where we were from…and if we were here studying law. Yeah, it was random. Easter day we didn’t do much to celebrate. We slept in and then went to Helado Boy’s for café con leche and ice cream. Then we went to Tanya’s place since she has internet and called home. Stayed there hanging out until it was time for Lauren to go home to dinner and the rest of us to go to Rebecca’s birthday party. The party was fun, but I was tired by midnight so went home. And that, my friends, is one looooongg account of Semana Santa. Whew! Time for bed, I’ll post this thing tomorrow. Goodnight!

One of the Mary Pasos