It’s Holy Week, or Semana Santa in Spain. 3 years ago, in 2017, I encountered my first Holy Week experience in Spain. My husband and I were so new to Spain when we learned about this phenomenal celebration of the Passion of The Christ. In Spain, a historically and traditionally Catholic nation Semana Santa remains a grand highlight of the year. Beginning 40 days after Carnival, this week-long tradition is marked by nightly processions featuring bands that belt dirges, intricately designed heavy wooden floats carried by a team of trained devotees, and penitents marching behind, their faces veiled in pointed hoods of various colors. The pasos usually depict an image of The Virgin Mary or Jesus, with each day reflecting an image, scene or station of the final days of Christ, including his crucifixion and eventual resurrection. It’s a big deal and a once in a lifetime opportunity as many people volunteer to participate, but those who carry the floats aren’t always able to do it multiple years.

Prior to our first major, in-person experience, my husband and I received a few write ups to help explain what to expect. One of the key distinctions, and something that will shock most Americans, especially African Americans, is the hooded figures. Without prior knowledge, most Americans would see a gathering of people in white robes and pointed hoods and thing Ku Klux Klan. And most African Americans would likely have all manner of expletives locked and loaded to release on the unsuspecting Spaniards. But these outfits have nothing to do with the Klan. In fact, the Klan is anti-catholic and if I’m being honest, stole their outfits from the Spaniards, who were doing this centuries before the U.S. was even a nation. Also, the people wearing the outfits are called penitentes and their outfits date back to the Middle Ages, when the tribunal group of the Inquisition of the Catholic Church doled out punishments. Think of it as a scarlet letter, but instead of it being sewn on the breast of the shirt, it’s an entire outfit. And historically, the cones had figures to represent the crimes committed by the person wearing them.

Nowadays, the color of the penitent’s outfit is determined by their brotherhood or Cathedral affiliation. First adopted in Seville in the 17th century, they are now popular among all HOly Week processions throughout Andalucia. The penitent is supposed to be praying under their hood, which is designed to hide their face, the cone represents their upwards approach to the sky or getting right with God despite their sins. (source: NEPMU-7 Indoc culture and traditions).

Our first year in Spain, we decided to join one of the sponsored excursions to Seville to witness the Good Friday Holy Week Procession. This one, my friends, is a big deal. We arrived early afternoon, with set instructions to meet back at the bus by 10pm. We were given a map of the area, contact information and even told to add a pin to the pick up location of the bus. The trip was more like a self-guided excursion with a timeline. We didn’t have a guide and we didn’t have the first idea as to how busy and crowded it would get. My goodness, we learned a valuable lesson.

For starters, given the extensive circuit of simultaneous brotherhood processions, most streets were blocked off, pedestrians were rerouted, and crowds made it a bit difficult to look out for landmarks and street signs. At first, everything was pretty low-key. While there were a few crowds gathered, it wasn’t overwhelming. We wandered around, taking in the distinct feel that permeates through Seville. The vibrant tiles, the old and new buildings and structures. The monorail juxtaposed with the sound and smell of horse drawn carriages. We got lost along the paved roads and the old world cobblestones marking the transition from modern spaces to historic streets crisscrossing to and from the cathedral and castle and various other neighborhoods. We were on a mission to get as close as possible to the processions to get clear views of the pasos (the wooden floats).

There were designated seating areas and we didn’t know if they were free or reserved for special guests, friends and families of those in the procession. We also noticed that people gathered on balconies and rooftops of the buildings peppered along the route. Those were probably some of the best and most coveted seats on the procession. My initial suggestion included getting good seats at the doors of the Cathedral. When we first ventured out and stumbled upon the cathedral, there were few people milling about, the doors weren’t opened but according to our map and schedule, we were ten minutes shy of seeing everything. Chris, on the other hand, wanted to move more. We had been on the bus for a little over an hour so he wanted to venture out and see more before settling on a spot.

In fact, because we weren’t familiar with our surroundings, we found ourselves stalking after a peninte wearing a blue pointed cap. I laughed and, in between heavy breathing during our jog, commented on how odd it was that two black people were running towards and not away from a whit person wearing a pointed hood and robe.

That day was pretty eventful, because after we saw all that we could see, took pictures and videos, it was time to return. And this is where we learned a valuable lesson. The sun had already set, and we had wrapped up eating when our alarm went off. We set our alarm to go off one hour before we were supposed to be back out the meeting destination. Our belief was that we’d leave early enough to account for getting lost and any other setbacks.

Let me tell you, it didn’t matter. We.Got.Lossssttt! And to make matters worse, both our phone batteries were fading fast, despite having put on battery saver mode the minute we got off our bus. We had our maps and our GPS, but the signal kept getting mixed up and the route was thrown off by the processions. Each street that we were directed towards had a barricade or a procession. Thankfully there were gaps in the procession and cops to help us cross through, but I found us going in circles several times.

We started to panic as our batteries died. We finally got to a clearing, how I don’t know, but once we figured out where we were, we took off running towards the bus. We made it with one minute to spare. The tour guide kept trying to call us and we let her know what was going on. We were the last ones to get on the bus, we were an hour late from our initial departure. I was both embarrassed, out of breath and confused because I thought we did everything right.

We saved the contact number, put on battery saver mode, saved the pin to our pick up destination, AND I forgot to mention but I took most of my pictures and video on my DSLR camera instead of my cell phone to avoid draining the battery. Oh and we left early! So, what was the lesson? Buy and always pack a fully charged portable charger. If we had a portable battery charger, our phones would not have gone out in the moment we needed them most.

The scary thing about this event was that the next day, we found out there was a stampede within an hour after we left. Apparently a group of jerks shouted out the name or slogans of a terror group in an effort to prank everyone. Well, this definitely freaked people out as they thought there was a bomb. oN top of that, the floats usually have lit and burning candles. So, in addition to carrying these heavy objects, the hoax put people at risk of being crushed and igniting a fire.

While that was our first and last Holy Week experience in Seville, we were able to catch a few of the processions in our town in subsequent years. In fact, on several occasions, I got to see men practicing the art of carrying the float weeks prior to the big event.

This is an unforgettable event and one for which I’m extremely grateful to have witnessed three years in a row!

Semana Santa: Reflections on Holy Week in Spain