Happy Easter!
I hope you have, or had, a wonderful Easter! Here are some of the beautiful Easter birds, with their chocolate eggs, who temporarily inhabited the windows of the chocolate shop in Fuengirola, where we have been during Holy Week.
Fuengirola is a small town on the Costa del Sol, Spain, and we were there with one of our daughters, her family and her in-laws. T and I flew into Malaga and so took the chance to spend three days there. I like the city very much.
Holy Week, (Santa Semana,) is very important in Andalucia, and we are all still a bit dazed by the huge and amazing processions of Jesus and Mary on their ornate silver and gold floats, lit by dozens of huge candles and carried mostly by men, some of them blindfolded, others in long robes, preceded by robed penitents in long pointed hats and always accompanied by a band.
The masks and robes of the penitents can seem quite frightening, partly because the evil founders of the Ku Klux Klan have perverted them by adopting very similar robes. The confraternities which run the processions are of course devoted to helping the sick, living holy lives, etc.
It's hard to convey just how extraordinary it is to have these processions going for hours through the workaday streets of the town. Every afternoon evening and night in Holy Week is given up to it - it's very much a living religious tradition with all ages and both sexes participating.
The atmosphere of the processions is exciting, positive and family centred.
Many children and young people collect the wax from the penitents' long candles, and at the end of the day the penitents' robes are often bespattered with wax.
The vast majority of people at the processions that we saw were local, and it was very much a social as well as a religious occasion. I suspect it is a custom that has its roots in very long tradition.
However narrow and maze-like the streets, the floats will get there, and the carrying of it is a highly skilled affair. This float arrived outside the tapas bar where we were having a snack at about 11 PM.
Nothing is mechanised, the floats are carried by human effort for hours and hours, often until the early hours of the morning
. It is clearly very tiring, and some of the bearers also do the work blindfold. Here are some of the bearers taking a rest in Malaga.
They were carrying a most spectacular float of the Virgin, and some of the candles were being renewed and relit by a very strong fellow carrying a long taper. Can you see him on the left?
I haven't downloaded all the photos yet, and there is so much more to say, I suppose - but I will post this now, as I wanted to wish you a Happy Easter before the holiday ends.
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