This week is the Semana Santa in Spain!
Semana Santa, which in 2023 takes place from 2-9 April, the week before Easter, is one of Spain's most well-known and cherished holidays. Semana Santa, also known as Holy Week, is a period of several days during which processions are held almost all over Spain. These processions feature a lot of incense, gloomy music, drums, and bells, as well as a range of feelings.
These processions help in keeping the memory of how Jesus’ rode into Jerusalem before being crucified. The roads are used for processions. Holy Saturday marks the end of the sacred week. Every day of Holy Week has its own unique practices. Also, each brotherhood is linked to a church and has its own statues that are being used.
Here are some interesting traditions of Semana Santa in general and Andalusia:
- on the streets men carry these holy statues from the church on their shoulders and walk in sync in an organised route
- between 20 and 100 men carry one statue.
- some people walk barefoot quite impressive because it can last 14 hours.
- the men carrying these floats wear pointy hoods which you should not confuse with the Ku Klux Klan.
- in Malaga they have more than 40 processions.
- on good Friday, you should not eat meat, therefore in the restaurants, you can mostly order dishes with seafood and vegetables.
#easter #holiday #malaga #andalusia #secondhome #semanasanta