Semana Santa and other Shenanigans.

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RURAL FIELD TRIP!
A couple Saturdays ago we went on a school trip to Aracena , which is very hilly and rural. It is famous for its ham... and we definitely saw lots of little piggies looking idyllic in the countryside. We also saw donkeys, goats, and sheep. We went on a 5 km. hike picking flowers and having sheepdogs growl at us anytime we tried to take a picture of their beloved flock. The little pueblo had lots of dogs running around, they were watching from their rooftops. We called our favorite the velveteen dog.. he was so funny!! In Aracena there is a long walk through some caves called the Gruta de las Marvillas. We aren´t allowed to take pictures, but there were deep pools , colorful stalagmites, stalactites, and marshmallow looking walls.
I was expected a little dwarf to dart past..

WORKING HARD...
Part of the program I am doing is involves a 5 week internship. Mine is at a music school. I spend the first part of work each day in the office. Mostly the secretary does all the work while I make her talk to me. Sometimes I get sent on little errands, such as yesterday when I had to make copies and buy ink at the store... one would be surprised how complicated it all was! I also direct the kids to the room of their lessons. Then I am allowed to observe classes of music theory and orchestra. The music vocabulary is pretty interesting here. The notes are called do re me fa so la si do instead of C D E, etc. The quarter notes are called negras and the half notes are called blancas. They told me I could do more if I had brought my clarinet, but maybe they will let me show the kids something with the guitar sometime.

MIDNIGHT DISCOVERY
I returned home one night, walked into my room, and noticed something a little out of the ordinary. After a few moments of bewilderment I walked a little closer and confirmed that it was indeed a huge plate of lopsided flan sitting on my bedside table. The sticky dessert had created a large brown stain on the cloth below. My host mom came in and told me the family downstairs had made it and brought it for me since I had mentioned how much I love it! I gave her a flan peace offering to promptly wash the stained tablecloth.

SEMANA SANTA
There are two groups of people in Sevilla, those that have grown weary of exponential population growth during holy week, and those that live for darting around watching every procession they can. My host mom isn´t Catholic, and doesn´t really get into it except for that some of the pasos (floats) are hundreds of years old, and are pieces of great art. The family below me definitely enjoys the week.
For those who don´t know much about Semana Santa, Sevilla is famous for its huge celebration of Holy Week. The streets are completely packed, and a distance that normally takes 5 minutes to get through can take 45 minutes, or even over an hour if you have to wait for a procession to cross. There are over 150 cofradías, or brotherhoods, that have a procession, walking from their church, through the cathedral, and back to their church. The process takes anywhere from 6-14 hours. Each procession has a Jesus paso (a float depicting different scenes from the passion) and a Mary paso (each looking similar except in the long cloth Mary wears, and her face.) Each paso is covered in gold, silver, candles, and flowers. It is carried by 35-40 people, costaleros, that wear a pillow type hat on their head, withstanding the weight of the paso on their bent-forward necks. You cannot see them, except for their feet occasionally if the cloth coming down from the sides is a bit shorter. There are 1000-2900 people walking in front of/ in between the pasos. The color worn depends on the brotherhood. The nazarenos wear a very pointy hood, and when the color worn is white, they look all too similar to the ´klan.´ Each nazareno carries a huge candle, and some walk without shoes. Each penitente wears a droopy hood and carries a wooden cross. (Some of the more conservative brotherhoods are said to bop people with the crosses if someone tries to walk through the procession to the other side) Two marching bands and drumlines accompany each brotherhood as well, and I still can´t comprehend how they can manage to play so long!

On Palm Sunday my friend Elizabeth and I visited the family below me to see Nicolas (the 12 year old) before he walked as a Nazareno. He was very nervous! Then the parents gave us vino and appetizers to celebrate the day. We walked around with the oldest boy Carlos, who took us on all the backroads to dodge through the crowds. The next day we walked around with some friends of their family to watch more, and they fed us some lomo and jamon(while I reflected on the cute piggies I had seen in Aracena). If there is a hint of rain, the processions do not leave the churches, as it would ruin such old art, so a day and a half was canceled. I am lucky enough to live on a street that many processions walk through. My host mom told me that people will pay up to 2000 € to watch from the balconies on our street, but she never rents it out. She did let me have my friends over to watch. From above, it was funny to watch all the wax gluttons, AKA the bratty kids that jump into the procession collecting the dripping wax from the nazarenos candles, forming huge wax balls.

The night of Holy Thursday into Good Friday(La Madrugada) is the night when the best processions take place. Some don´t even exit the church until 3:45 in the morning. We stood freezing on the Puente Isabel II bridge for almost 3 hours to get a spot and then watch the whole procession of "La Esperanza de Triana."(Triana is a neighborhood across the river) I saw one of the violin teachers from the music school I work at watching it as well. One of my favorite things to watch is when the paso stops, lowers for a few minutes to let the costaleros rest, and is lifted up again. Some of the older ones have to be lifted very slowly, while the newer ones go up with a jolt. That night we also watched "El Silencio" exit the church. The streetlights were turned off, and a completely packed street had to remain very quiet. We also watched it enter the church again later. After the doors shut, the lights slowly came back on and the crowd could speak and walk around again. It was a very surreal transition. "La Macarena" is a very famous procession, the Mary paso is said to be one of the most beautiful ones. There were also men looking like soldiers in armor and feathered helmets marching along. By the time we watched the Jesus paso go by, it was 6 in the morning. I knew it would take another 45 minutes for Mary to come by. Since I was near my house I ran in, ate a plate of that delicious flan, and ran back. Jesus had passed when it was still dark, but when Mary passed dawn had broken and we were standing under a balcony with people throwing rose petals, so after we were showered with the excess that didnt land on Mary´s float, I saved some to give to the kids of the family under me to use on another procession.

TRIDUUM PLAY BY PLAY
On Good Friday I ate dinner and later stopped dead in my tracks when I realized that I had eaten a huge plate of meatballs. Whoops. I was told later that in Sevilla, the church recognizes that people spend the entire week reflecting on the passion, walking around and staying up late, and are not under obligation of the fasting. I don´t know if this is true but I would like to find out!

On Holy Saturday we went to an Easter vigil mass with candles. The flame started from the back and was being passed candle by candle. A man in front of us was too impatient, pulled out his lighter, lit his candle and was trying to pass the flame. It was hilarious watching people trying to politely refuse his secular fire.

On Easter Sunday I watched the Resurrection float go by (which oddly enough people think is one of the uglier ones) Sevilla was exhausted by then so hardly anyone was out watching it. It was also interesting that although the entire city pretty much has a dress code of dresses, suits, ties on Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday, not many people were walking around during Easter afternoon in nice clothes.

For the last week the city has been full of squeaky shoes, a consequence of the waxy residue of Semana Santa...I even saw a women wipe out slipping on it!!

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