Semana Santa

The holy week in Spanish countries is called Semana Santa. Semana Santa is the week leading up to Easter or in Spanish la Pascua. On Semana Santa Spaniards get God out of the grave on Palm Sunday, parade Him round the streets of their towns and cities for five days and bury Him again on Good Friday. Easter is one of the most important holy days for Spanish people. The week before Easter involves solemn processions, prayer, masses and other preparation for Jesus’ rebirth. Customs in the United States include Mexicans’ cascarones, the Mexican version of an Easter egg or eggshells, filled with confetti. They are for being cracked on someone’s head as a little surprise. In Spain they are mainly catholic so the celebration is mainly religious. they do not go Easter egg hunting or anything like that. Here in southern Spain and especially along the Costa Del Sol, each town or village has its own holy processions held on a daily basis, from Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday usually in the late afternoon or evening.
The processions are based around the huge effigy of the Holy Virgin and other religious scenes which are paraded through the streets on top of heavy floats which are carried by men from the village or town. It usually takes around 100 or so men to carry the virgin and it is a carefully and well practiced event. These men who carry the weight of the wooden floats are called “costaleros”. They are expected the carry these “thrones” with great solemnity and grace. They each use a small cushion, called a “coastal” to protect themselves from the wood rubbing against their skin during these long processions. there are several groups of marchers and one of those groups is made up of men dressed in long white cloaks with pointed white hoods. these are meant to depict the Nazarenes (people from Nazareth) and are portrayals of holy marches from Spain’s long and fascinating history. There are several different religious groups represented in the processions with different dress costumes. One of the better known groups is the Moors and Catholics depicting the ejection of the Moorish invaders from Spain by the holy armies. In most of the Spanish speaking countries they celebrate Semana Santa the same. It is different in every town but they do the same things in all of the Spanish countries.


http://www.prayforspain.com/comment/index14.html

http://www.de.nrcs.usda.gov/about/spanish/majorholidays.html

http://pscosta.com/costa-del-sol/semana-santa-holy-week/