Semana Santa translates to Holy Week, and, these Easter Week celebrations are huge here in the South of Spain! Rosie is in Malaga waiting for the proceedings to start and the feeling of excitement is building. The anticipation is like the lead up to Christmas….and there are no chocolate eggs in sight….anywhere.
Rocio, established in 1706, is the name of the local barrio (suburb/neighbourhood) Rosie is staying in. The barrios, all 42 in Malaga, are basically the church parishes which are known as brotherhoods and each parish brotherhood participates in the huge Easter Parades that wind around the city daily in the week leading up to Easter Sunday.
Each brotherhood has two thrones to carry in the parade – one depicts a scene from the Passion of Christ where Jesus is on the way to his crucifixion, each brotherhood tells a different part of the Passion. The other throne is of the Virgin Mary, his mother, showing Sorrow at what is transpiring.
The Esperanza Brotherhood is one of the largest and oldest in the city. Their gigantic thrones are all ready for the parade and open to the public to view a couple of weeks before Easter, Rosie and The Operator snuck in through the giant doors which are needed to get the enormous thrones out on parade day, for a nosey.
Wow! Rosie was totally unprepared for the lavishness, size and ornamentation of these thrones, it was just breath taking! The giant throne or float was sitting there, just gleaming in the light from the gold adornments and candle sticks that surround them.
The figures were tragic, beseeching and theatrical. Rosie could not imagine what it would look like to have this giant throne traversing the city. Three hundred men or throne bearers as they are known as, will carry this 5 tonne float, shoulder to shoulder! What a sight that must be.
The Esperanza parade will take 11 hours, yes, that is not a typo, 11 hours to travel from its home church, along the official parade route which has up to a million spectators watching, to Malaga Cathedral to receive the traditional Easter blessing and back home again to its local neighborhood.
A local parish brass band will accompany the float and hooded, gowned penitents called Nazarenes will also march in front of and behind the float. Esperanza has 750 Nazarenes….you are getting the idea on how big this event is now?
The Virgin Mary statue on the throne is life size and the train of her robes is 8 meters long. This image is just breath taking, and mind blowing as Rosie wanders around it! In just a few days time we will hopefully see it for real!
Rosie and The Operator were out having dinner in our barrio….a crowd was starting to gather around the church and traffic was being stopped. The statues of Christ and The Virgin Mary were being transferred from the church to the throne hall for placement on the Rocio giant elaborate thrones/floats. The crowd was getting bigger in the twilight and an avenue of school children holding candles lined the street for the procession to pass through the middle.
Then, to the tolling of a bell, out they came…together, on a small platform being carried as they would on parade day by a fraction of the throne bearers shuffling shoulder to shoulder.
The Rocio Virgin is known as the ‘Bride of Malaga’ and is very famous for her beauty. Christ is carrying the cross and is shown stumbling under the weight on his way to Calvary.
The hundreds of people in the crowd were dead silent, the Rocio brass band was playing a somber slow tune….as soon as the statues emerged from the church applause and cheering broke out like you have never heard. The statue bearers stopped on the local square for half an hour so the locals could touch the gown of Mary and the feet of Christ….it was very moving. Rosie cannot wait to see the Easter Parade!
Holy Week, has started! Young and old participate within each suburbs church communities and everyone seems to get together and become one extended family over the course of the week long celebrations. ! Rosie’s barrio (neighborhood) is one of the first eight city wide parades scheduled for today, Palm Sunday, the first day of celebrations which kick off the 42 processions of the week.
Each parade is started in the barrios own church, which is Bascilica de Santa María de la Victoria, and heads towards the official parade route through the city center towards the Malaga Cathedral. Each parade is timed to pass the cathedral at half hour intervals. Our parade started at home at 1600 today.
There is a festive feeling in the air, the balloon sellers are out prior to the starting of the parade. So is the sunshine and everyone in the neighborhood is out at the cafes, dressed in their finest lingering over drinks and lunch so they have a seat for the parade when it passes.
Some have even bought their own chairs for the long wait to get the best spots.
The parade is lead by half of the 750 Rocio Nazarenes or penitents, A few are walking in bare feet as did Christ on the way to his crucifixion. Each barrio has different colored robes and the tradition of the sinners covering their faces and bodies so they cannot be recognized goes back hundreds of years.
Next comes a station of the cross, the first of two Rocio has to parade. Today’s depicts Pontius Pilot proclaiming Jesus to death along side the other two convicts by crucifixion. Two hundred and fifty men are carrying this float in 26c heat.
A full brass band is playing a somber, slow, marching tune and the men sway from side to side with each step to a drum beat. Wow, it is amazing and emotional to watch….both the parade and the people watching the parade…
Every 25 meters or so the bell is rung and the men sit the float down on its legs and rest for about thirty seconds……..then the bell is rung again and in unison the float is shouldered and in the swaying melodic fashion it walks forward again.
What a sight to behold, Rosie is just speechless, this float will take 8 hours to finish its route today!
Then, amongst the clouds of incense that accompany the thrones, swung from braziers by the penitents comes the sorrowful Virgin Mary following in the second float. She is stunning and sways to the beat of the drum and the rhythm of the throne bearers sitting under her canopy amongst her golden candles. Sorry you cannot see her, the canopies shadow was too dark and she was the only one in the shade today, the day was blazing hot and bright.
That evening the kids from the local school had their own Semana Santa parade. They stuck to the footpath…no road closures for them as they solemnly shouldered and marched their tiny throne.
They even had a bell like the big thrones which is rung so they could stop and rest, whilst parents diligently handed out water as the kids mopped their faces. Lol.
Rosie has ventured out to see a few of the different thrones over the next few days, they are all spectacular and incredible looking. All are carried with dignity and solemnity and everyone crowding the footpaths observes with the same reverence, some tearful.
On Easter Sunday there is only one parade in Malaga, the last one of Semana Santa. It starts at 1000am and finishes at 1400. Easter Sunday is all about the joy of the resurrection of Christ and his ascension to Heaven. The pomp and pageantry of this finale were taken to the next level. The air all around the floats was heavy and thick with incense.
All of the barrios in Malaga take part together in this closing parade. The bands playing were upbeat and festive, the crowds were clapping and cheering the entire route and the joy in the air was infectious.
The penitents look like they mean business and most were dressed back in white. All of the different colours represented all of the barrio brotherhoods.
And here comes the throne of Mary, it looked magnificent as usual, no holds were barred in the decoration and the hundreds of fresh spring flowers on it smelt incredible as it swayed past to the gasping, clapping and cheering of the crowd
The sense of community during this time is outstanding and the inclusion the neighborhood has afforded me is humbling. The locals knowing my interest told me when the parades were scheduled and where the best spots to view it from where. Juan from my regular tapas bar has even shyly given me a beautiful coffee table booklet showing all of the Malaga floats and the barrios histories as a gift.
Rosie has been shepherded to the front of the viewing lines because I have never seen this solemn parade before and I have been treated like a VIP. Paco from the coffee shop gave me free samples of the Easter dessert they only have at this time of the year here in Malaga, Torrehos, which is a beautiful left over bread desert where the bread is soaked in sweet Malaga wine and dipped in sugar…which is divine!
Beautiful art posters of the parades adorn the local shop windows and were removed and presented to me to take home by the shop keepers as a souvenir of Semana Santa.
Easter on my own in Malaga, Spain was so magical and Rosie was so lucky she was able to experience it first hand, and, there was not a chocolate Easter Egg or Hot Cross Bun anywhere to be seen. It will forever be a time of the year I will always remember fondly as an old school celebration of beliefs by the devout believers, and a time to come together as family and community, because, let’s face it ‘Jesus is the reason for the season…’
