Semana Santa.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter. I was in Southern Spain during parts of this week and was lucky enough to witness two processions in celebration of this week.

The large city of Granada, Spain hosts a huge celebration of Semana Santa starting on Palm Sunday; the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem. After a long day of walking around the entire city of Granada (I consulted the map at the end of the day ... I nearly did walk the entire city), I was intent on finding some dinner and heading back to the hostel to lay flat for a while. The bus ended it's route short of what the map said and I ended up having to walk back. What my friend J and I could not figure out was why?! When we walked smack into the middle of the procession we figured it out! We happened upon nearly a front row spot to view the procession.

One of two Mary's in the procession.An Order of the Brotherhood preceding the station with Jesus and His disciples.Jesus and His disciples at what looked like the last supper.Refilling the incense.Another Mary. This one was AMAZING. So detailed and beautiful.Each city has its own unique way of doing the processions of Semana Santa. They use different stations based on their own churches so each procession can be very different. J and I did not stay for the entire procession. We watched three of the five stations pass accompanied by their bands. We were tired and hungry ... so food and sleep won out.

I was in Solobrena, Spain on Wednesday and was able to see the town's procession to celebrate and display Christ's suffering and humility. Compared to the procession in Granada, Solobrena's was nearly non-existent. It only had one Order of Brotherhood, followed by one station and then one band. J and I had scoped out a spot to watch the procession and at the starting time we assembled there to wait. We waited and waited. Turns out Solobrenians like to follow the procession along the route. They all went with it from the church; cheering and applauding when the procession was moving and taking in refreshments whilst it was taking a break of its own. After two hours the procession, along with the entire town of Solobrena converged on our little corner. Even though the procession was much smaller - I enjoyed how the station was carried, "danced about" and moved through town.We laughed when we realised that the procession would pass right by our hostel! We could have napped for two hours and then gone out to the street to watch it pass by. Oh well, that is part of the excitement of experiencing new places.