Semana Santa

So after Morocco I came back to an entirely different Sevilla: it was Semana Santa (Holy Week), the week of Easter. It scared me a little at first to see the “Nazarenes” (members of the “brotherhood” of each church, see photo) walking by in their outfits when I got off the bus that night.

After resting a few days (I was exhausted) I ventured out to experience one of the biggest holy week celebrations in the world—second only to Rome! Seville was flooded with people who crowded the streets to watch the “pasos” (floats of statues of Mary or scenes of Jesus during the Easter story) parade by, along with the Nazarenes and penitents, and often a band as well. Each paso made its way from its own chapel to the big cathedral and then back. You can also walk down and see them on display before they are taken out of the church. Magdalena took me to see a few in Triana (our neighborhood) which was cool. She is so funny—she and her sister love Semana Santa and they were watching everything on TV like all week. I went out with some friends to see the parades on Thursday and Friday night. On Thursday night the most famous pasos make their routes through most of the night and morning. I went out late but I didn’t last all night!

I have to say seeing the pasos in person was much different than seeing them on TV. Magdalena told me that with all the music and people and smell of incense it is very different and very emotional. She was totally right. One of the first ones I saw was of Jesus being taken off the cross after His death and it was actually a silent one. The crowd was hushed and the Nazarenes walked slowly by with candles. I liked it; was a sobering and poignant reminder of what He did for us.

However, it seemed to me that people were almost more emotional about seeing the pasos of the Virgin Mary…or Marys I should say. I think each church has their own Mary paso and Jesus paso…but the Mary always comes last in the parade. They are all different Virgins…the one of Triana is “la Esperanza de Triana” (The Hope of Triana). There is the Macarena, “La O”, and many others. I have seen people cry when they see the paso, sing prayers to it out loud… Magdalena told me to touch the float when it went by and say a prayer. She told me that people form an attachment to “their” Virgin—they step into the church and say a prayer to it on the way to the grocery store or wherever. This just blew my mind. Praying to Mary already doesn’t make sense to me, much less a specific statue of Mary. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to offend anyone or disrespect the culture… I can see how if you grew up doing that a strong emotional attachment could easily be formed. And they are beautiful statues. But it was more disheartening than I can say to see people in a Christian denomination not only praying to Mary, but praying and worshipping a specific statue of Mary. It looks too much like idolatry to me…to go pray to a statue instead of Jesus who died so that they could come straight to Him. So that was frustrating and saddening for me.

I also wish there was more focus on the resurrection. There is only one paso on Easter Sunday of the resurrection. I do think it is good that the Catholic Church focuses on the crucifixion—one thing I think the protestant church may not do enough. The extent of His sacrifice shows us how much He loves us! But I want people to see that His death was not to bring guilt, but freedom from sin and a relationship with Him! That truth was not evident to me through Semana Santa. It seemed like the week focused more on feeling guilty because of His death and doing penance. The penitents were people who walked, covered up like the nazerenes (just without the pointy hat), carrying crosses the whole route (hours and hours—a whole day or night). Some did it barefoot. I think most were people with a prayer they wanted God to answer and felt like they needed to do this to earn it I suppose. Then there were the costeleros—the men (and sometimes boys) who carried the pasos. It rested on the back of their neck right above their shoulders. The paso is so heavy that by the end of their one or two hour shift they would often be bleeding. When we saw it on TV Magdalena would point out their wounds with pride. Although I admire their devotion, it made me sad that they feel like they need to do all this…for a statue, or to get God to answer their prayer…He offers His love freely, we don’t need to feel like we have to torture ourselves to earn it!

Anyway, despite all that, Semana Santa was a really neat experience. It was crazy to see Sevilla so full of people! I love the picture to the right. See the crowd?? The paso is in the distance. That is right in front of a bridge I crossed everyday. And it was cool to celebrate Easter like that—with reminders of it at every corner, literally! But I have to say that I was overjoyed to be encouraged by those who believe like I do on Easter Sunday. (Although I also love hanging out with people who have different beliefs as well!) I was with Mary Alice and some American girls interning with her. We had a picnic and church service in a park with three missionary families there (two that I worked with when I came before!) We sang familiar praise songs (in English), listened to one of the missionaries, Dave, speak, and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids…which was great because I was sad about missing watching my siblings do that. It was a wonderful day!