Santa Semana - Easter Friday

Easter Friday:

The Easter Friday procession is the most mournful of all the processions that take place during Holy Week.
The images were of Christ carrying the cross and again, the Virgin Mary. It was very similar in its entirety to that of the one the previous evening, with one very big difference. The route took in the longest, steepest street in Rute. We had learnt that as the costaleros carried the float up this street, there would be no stopping - it seemed an impossible human feat looking at the
length and gradient of that street. As they slowly started their way up, carrying the image of Christ, the band followed behind, playing a madrigal and no-one, but no-one uttered a word. Then, barely noticeably, we realised that as the float moved up the street, people in the street gradually fell into step with the float, walking backwards uphill, in time, again that gentle sway, whilst facing the image of Christ. It was the most humbling and overwhelmingly moving experience. Then the final most amazing sight was as the costaleros reached the top of the hill, they stretched their arms full length to hold the image of Christ on high - the sight and experience brought tears to my eyes (in more ways than one!!).

The image of Virgin Mary was carried in the same way, up the same street, and as it passed by us we fell into step behind procession this time - humbled to be privileged to be part of such a mark of devout commitment.

I felt very aware of how much this tradition of the Santa Semana is part of the culture of these folks and how appropriately it reflects their spirit.

The memories of Easter in Spain will never, ever leave me.

Apologies for the strange looking object in this last pic but it does show, so well, the density of the crowds. It had started to rain heavily just prior to carrying the image of Christ up the hill and the entire float had been covered in protective plastic - though this did nothing to detract from the solemnity of the occasion.