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| One of the pasos |
Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the week leading up to Easter, starting with Palm Sunday. This week is celebrated throughout Spain, but Andalucía is known for its processions and celebrations. Sevilla is perhaps the best known for Semana Santa, but Granada is a close second. The newspaper comes out with a small booklet filled with details about all of the processions that will take place throughout the city. Starting on Palm Sunday, there are processions of cofradías (which I believe to be groups from congregations of different churches around the city). Each group dresses in certain colors with hoods. These are called the penitentes and they march solemnly along the streets, most of the time with a band playing, and carrying a big religious float-type piece called el paso (yes, like the city in Texas, yee-haw baby!).
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| The Penitentes |
The crowds watching the processions are huge, and it's difficult to cross streets or get to certain places in town while the processions take place.
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| Crowd on Gran Vía |
In some of the cofradías, children participate too. Many were dressed as shepherds, and they came in all sizes.
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| Cute baby in procession |
These processions happen all week, with somewhere between 4-6 each day. Each one has a different paso from their particular church, and each cofradía wears different colors.
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| A paso of the Virgin Mary |
We spent most of Semana Santa in northern Spain, and here are a few pictures of the different groups we saw in Bilbao, too.
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