{Semana Santa}

Semana Santa is the week before Easter. It begins on Palm Sunday and goes until Easter Sunday. This week is one of the most celebrated and well-known in Spain, if not Europe. Thousands of visitors come to Sevilla this week to see the week-long processions of bands, Nazarenos (the men dressed in robes with pointy hats covering their faces), and statues of Jesus and Mary. It is a few thousand year old tradition that brings enormous amounts of passion, emotion, and religious dedication that is not typical here during the other 51 weeks in the year.

Many Sevillians feel a great pride for Catholicism this week one of the year and are very dedicated to going to the processions each day, participating in the processions, praying to the virgin Mary, and even mustering up tears and sadness. The processions begin Palm Sunday and go until Easter, with the most famous and popular beginning Thursday at midnight and going until Friday around 4 or 5am. Thousands of people crowd the narrow streets of Seville, standing in complete silence, to watch the processions pass. The statues are enormous and this night is one of Jesus being crucified on the cross. It's interesting how much importance they put on his death and how much sadness and tears are shown this day; however, on Easter Sunday, hardly anyone is in the streets celebrating the resurrection of Christ. The most important day in history is hardly even noticed by the city. Pray that the victory over sin and new life we have in Christ because of the Resurrection would be made a reality here during Semana Santa, and that people's eyes would be open to the true hope there is in the death and resurrection of Christ!

Above is one statue of Mary that is carried on the shoulders of about 40 men for hundreds of miles through the city.

These are the Nazarenos above who come from different churches throughout the city. They normally walk barefoot for miles carrying candles and banners of Christ. Each church has a procession that leaves from the church, goes around the city, then ends in the main Cathedral.

This is a statue of Jesus on the cross that is on it's way to the main Cathedral.