Remembering a Polish Easter...

Originally posted April 13th 2009. I'm reposting this now because I think it will interest some of you who didn't read it back in the day! Happy Easter to all! :o)

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All this Easter talk and reading (I've been visiting other blogs) has reminded me that I discovered some new (for me) Easter traditions when I was visiting friends on a wonderful trip to Poland several years ago and I'd like to share them (and some of my photos from the trip, click on them for bigger views) here with you.

Statue of Pope John Paul II in Warsaw

Holy Week again!

We're in the midst of Holy Week again, and in Spain Semana Santa = processions in almost every town and city across the country!!!

I missed out on my favourite procession this year, Palm Sunday, because I was out hiking (very cold and windy hike, but a fabulous outing! Will write about it asap). But because it was such a nice day when we got back into Alicante, a few of us didn't feel like heading home! So we wandered around downtown for a bit and popped into a place to have a merienda (snack). 2h later (lots of talking!) as I'm walking back to where I left the car I found I couldn't cross the Rambla because that evening's procession was underway!!! So I stayed and watched for a bit... and of course filmed it for you guys! ;o)

It's just one "paso" ("paso" = statue of a Saint, or the Virgin or Jesus on its throne, accompanied by the faithful and a marching band or two), I didn't stay around for any more (tired and in desperate need of a shower, lol!), but I thought you'd enjoy it! So here you have the Cofradía de San Pedro Apóstol, completing a loop through downtown (they had started off from the Cathedral and were only 2 blocks away from returning there). You can see members of the brotherhood wearing a medallion with their emblem, and three ladies carrying the symbols of St Peter (keys, fishing boat, net) on cushions.

I don't know if I'll be able to see any others this year... I wanted to last night but had to work late. I might talk with a friend about going to Elche on Sunday to see their Easter Sunday procession (is supposed to be beautiful), but we'll see. Anyhow, if you want to see what I wrote about other Semana Santa processions in the last couple of years follow these links:

• Semana Santa Española (an introduction to Holy Week in Spain)
• Palm Sunday in Elche in 2010 and in 2011. (They make some beautiful and very elaborate palms, and each year send one to the Pope!)
• Palm Sunday in Alicante in 2011.
• Procesión de la Hermandad de la Santa Cruz on Holy Wednesday in Alicante (2010 and 2011), probably the most unique procession in Alicante!
• Procesión del Silencio in Callosa del Segura on Holy Thursday. The Procesión del Silencio (Silent Procession) is always a goosebump-inducing one! Town only lit by the candles of the faithful, and the only sound the beat of a lonely drum (and maybe a dolçaina).
• Domingo de Resurrección (Easter Sunday) in Alicante in 2011. A joyful procession! :o)

And going through this I just realised I didn't write about the Procesión del Silencio in Elche last year!!! Well then, looks like I've got work to do this week! Hopefully I'll be able to make some time for that... Kind of depends on how many photos and video I took... :p

Habemus papam

First Jesuit Pope, first Latinamerican Pope (actually first non-European!) and first Pope Francis! I'm hoping this is a sign of more new things in the Church. In any case he has a kind face and a sense of humour! :o)

Watching all this live has been quite moving and thrilling!

Random Ramblings

• I've gotten quite a few new visitors to the blog (WELCOME!!!)... all coming over for a visit from Snug Harbor Bay because my friend Kim wrote a lovely post about me yesterday!!! Fabulous surprise! (I thought you were just going to show off the hat and scarf Kim!) One of the things I like best about blogging is all the fabulous people I've been able to "meet" through our respective blog posts and comments. It's opened the world up for me and allowed me to make new friends in a fun way! I liken it to having pen pals back in the day (I tried once or twice, never stuck), except 100 times better! I hope some day to get to meet some of my "virtual" friends in the "real" world soon (Kim -> Spain + Italy for when???), but in the meantime it's wonderful hanging out with you guys online! :o)

• For the past 36h the news has been all abuzz about the Pope's "retirement" (15' section in the news today at lunch!!!). I don't have an opinion either way, but I do seem to remember about 10 years ago people asking why Pope John Paul II didn't retire and hearing it said that popes couldn't retire! Guess they got it wrong... just 'cause no one's done it in 800 years doesn't mean it can't be done! Still, it's weird to think of a Pope retiring! But he sure looks feeble in the news images... can't be an easy "job".

• Speaking of random news items, it turns out the Brits like to bury their Kings in car parks! lol! That was all over the news last week, did you guys hear about it? Talk about an archaeological treasure hunt... and find! Richard III remains "Crookback Dick" in my mind, not thanks to Shakespeare, but because of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Black Arrow"! That was my first intro to the King (and the War of the Roses). Fascinating (and bloody!) period of British history... Now I'm wondering: what kind of State Funeral will the British Crown give its newly found monarch? An Anglican service doesn't seem right considering he was Catholic... but I have trouble imagining the head of the Church of England presiding over a Catholic funeral service... Anyhow there's a really interesting post about the dig itself over on The History Girls, very good read!

• I've tallied up quite a few movies these past couple of weeks (damn Oscar season!), have to prep a post on them... I'm only missing Amour to wrap up the Oscar nominees for Best Picture, will try to catch that this weekend. But I'm wondering whether or not to give The Master and Flight a go to get a look at their Oscar-nominated performances... neither movie really caught my attention, but I like to see as many of the major contenders as possible before the big night... Speaking of the Oscars, how ridiculous is it that Ben Affleck wasn't even nominated for Best Director considering he's winning just about every other "best director" award out there this season? He just got the BAFTA on Sunday! (bravo!)

• *sigh* I was really hoping I'd be able to make a grand announcement about spending 6 months this summer working in Iceland... but I didn't get the job. Major bummer! Sticking with the English classes for a while longer (and every week hoping none of my students cancels on me). When is this stupid global crisis going to end and there be more opportunities for people with a biology/environmental background? Anybody know of a decent environmental education or conservation position out there? I love my students but I'm tired of teaching English!

Project 365 - 113

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Today's pic (click it bigger!) is from Alicante's Easter Sunday procession. At 11h30 the Virgin was carried out of her church and Christ out of his, and at noon they met in front of City Hall and danced for joy at seeing each other! :o)

Joyous meeting between the Virgin and Christ resuscitated!

 

I'll be writing more about this procession over at Cris Crossing the Globe within the next couple of days.

Project 365 - 105

Stalls with palms and olive branches for Palm Sunday

Today I'm adding two more (you can see I'm having trouble with this "photo a day" concept: either I forget to take a picture, or I can't choose between the ones I have taken! lol!) so you can see the palms in detail. I bought a tall plain one for my dad, one of the ones in the next photo for my mom, and the last one is the detail on a tall palm I got for myself. Tomorrow we'll probably be going to Elche (if our knees aren't complaining too loudly) for the Palm Sunday procession. I wrote about it in detail last year (lots of gorgeous photos of palms, plus some videos). If you haven't read it or would like a reminder of what will be going on tomorrow in most Spanish towns/cities (but Elche is supposed to be the best for this procession), then click HERE and go read up on it. ;o)

Alicante y Las Cruces de Mayo

There's a holiday held each year in the oldest neighbourhood in Alicante that I'd caught a mention of in passing once or twice (heard someone speak of it, read a plaque somewhere), but never got to see or knew when it was. Well I stumbled upon it quite accidentally this year, thanks to the internet! It's amazing the random things one stumbles upon in this virtual world...

painting on a wall depicting the emblems of the Barrio

 The Barrio de la Santa Cruz is the prettiest neighbourhood in town (basically the only one worth visiting!) with its traditional white houses piled on top of each other, narrow streets with plenty of steps going up (and down!) and flowers everywhere (at least in Spring). It's basically the old medieval/arab town, on the flanks of the Castillo de Santa Barbara and leading down to the Cathedral and the Rambla (one of the main avenues, which used to be a dry riverbed!). A small chapel -which legend has is built on the foundations of an old mosque- overlooks the neighbourhood, and one of the most interesting Holy Week Processions starts out from there on the Wednesday before Easter (I actually saw it this year, was too busy -still am- but do you think it's too late to write about it now?).

From May 1st to 3rd this neighbourhood (as well as many other towns in Spain and Latin America) celebrates the "Cruces de Mayo". Music fills the air, as does the noise of firecrackers and children playing and people talking. The residents decorate their streets with streamers and lights and flowers and set up Crosses covered with flowers.

my favourite in the street decorations

Cross on a corner

Semana Santa: Domingo de Ramos en Elche

Palm Sunday. Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey while a festive populace laid palms down at his feet. In many Spanish cities a "procesión" is held commemorating this joyous day, with a figure of Jesus on a donkey being carried through the city on the shoulders of the faithful, to the sound of marching bands and the murmur (for Spaniards can rarely ever be quiet!) of the people walking either ahead, behind or watching from the sides. Most carry white palms as a symbol of participation in the ritual, some simple tall leaves from palm trees, others more elaborately twisted or woven together into a lovely design or even a "sculpture" of sorts.

Coming soon: Semana Santa Española

a.k.a. Holy Week, which in Spain = the faithful carrying out the statues of Saints through the streets of the towns, kind of putting on a Passion Play over the course of the week with these figures on their thrones.

And I'll start by enticing you with a few shots I've been fiddling with (luv iphoto!) from today's Palm Sunday procession in Elche where people brought their Palms (frequently palms they've made into true works of Art!) to be blessed and then followed Christ's entrance into Jerusalem (or in this case the Basilica of Sta Maria):

looking through a bell

Semana Santa

I'd say Spain's pretty well known at an international level for the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations, namely all the processions that take place in various towns and cities, mostly in the south, some better known (i.e. tourism hot spots) than others. For those who don't know what it's all about, here's a glimpse into one of the biggest religious events of the year.

Holy Week takes place between Palm Sunday and the Saturday before Easter Sunday. It's a time to commemorate Christ's entrance to Jerusalem, his final days of life, including the Last Supper (Holy Thursday) followed by the Passion (Holy Friday) and then the Resurrection (Easter Sunday, starting the new liturgical year). In many places in Spain at this time you can practically breathe the religious atmosphere in the air thanks to the various processions, particularly in Murcia (not for the sculptures by Salzillo) and Andalucía and most small towns.

So what's the big deal with these processions? What are they all about? Despite my mom's going on and on about them when I was growing up, I didn't quite "get it" until I moved to Spain over a decade ago and my second Easter here was invited by a friend at college to spend the holiday with her in her (very small) town Cieza (province of Murcia). And there it hit me. WOAH! It's like I said earlier, you can breathe in the religious atmosphere with the air. Every day during Holy Week (except for Saturday) several "cofradías" (devout Catholics who come together in a Church and devote themselves to the care of one -or more- representations of Christ, the Virgin or the Saints) come together as a brotherhood and take the religious images (Christ, Virgin or Saint(s)) out of the Church and walk around town with them. These statues are placed on "thrones" (or floats), richly decorated with cloths, candles, flowers etc, and are CARRIED by the "nazarenos" (penitents and other people who carry the thrones or walk in front of them during the procession, they typically wear tunics and some kind of head covering -either a hood and/or a cone-shaped hat which represents a rapprochement with Heaven). They are usually accompanied by either a full marching band or just drums, and are followed by the parish priest and other religious authorities as well as any of the faithful who care to join in. Sometimes it's just one group going out, others several come together from different churches, but all in a certain order that makes religious sense. Basically it's like seeing the Gospels come to life before your eyes! The statues tell you a story. So my guess is the origins of this tradition had a double function: to give the people the chance to show their respects for the Christ/Virgin/Saints, but also as an educational tool, helping people visualise a story they couldn't read for themselves (as not only most people couldn't read, but the bibles were all in Latin!).

Some processions are rather joyful, particularly on Easter Sunday - La Gloria - when frequently they have the images "dancing" by jiggling the thrones, having them bow down, or even running with them. Others are more solemn, most notably that of the Passion on Holy Thursday at (or around) midnight, when the statue taken out is that of Christ Crucified. This one is usually called "La Procesión del Silencio" and is done in the dark (all the lights are turned off in the town along the procession's path, street lights included, only illumination comes from the penitents' candles) and in complete silence, only accompanied by the beat of a solitary drum. This one gives me goosebumps every single time (have seen 3).
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It's definitely an experience I'd recommend living through at least once, whether you are religious or not. Best in smaller towns and of course Sevilla. But for the latter you'd better be ready to find a spot along the route to watch them from early on... some people show up hours before because it gets very crowded!


I took these pictures during two processions on Holy Thursday in Callosa d'en Sarriá, a small town in the south of Alicante, next to the Murcia border. The processions are supposed to be "better" in the neighbouring town of Orihuela, but we went here as a trip down memory lane for my mom. She lived in Callosa for a couple of years as a kid and participated in several processions after her confirmation.
The first shots are from the procession of the "Virgen de la Macarena" while the later ones are from the "Procesión del Silencio" that took place an hour later, both leaving from the Iglesia de San Martín. You can see them better (bigger) if you click on them.