Holy week

One of the great things about Spanish life is the absurd number of public holiday .

Holy Week,  is like a Catholic version of Spring Break.

1. Processions

Religious processions are a big deal for a lot of people, and they basically involve taking the images of the Virgin Mary or of Christ out of the local church and walking them very slowly around the neighborhood. There are lots of guys in pointy hats–KKK-style, which is creepy.

Since it’s always raining somewhere in Spain during springtime, you can see the news reports of small-town people weeping because they can’t take their Virgin out–they spend a lot of time preparing for these things and it ruins their whole spring when the procession is cancelled. But at some point during the week you should be able to catch one. They’re a little bit boring if you’re going to stand there and watch the whole thing–don’t say I didn’t warn you!

2. Torrijas

Please, whatever you do, don’t tell a Spaniard that their torrijas are just what we call French Toast by another name. Well, almost. I guess we could fixate on the little differences (torrijas are fried rather than cooked on a griddle, for example) but I’d say that torrijas are a pretty good stand-in for French Toast anytime. Also big at this time of year are buñuelos

From my point of view, here in Ceuta the processions are quite good.

As I'm musician in a musical band of Ceuta. I have to play the trumpet for one procession every day following the different Virgins. I think that the only " bad " thing is that all the procesion pass the same places because Ceuta isn't very big and the majoraty of them starts in the city center.

But in my opinion I think it is very beautiful to watch the imagies in the smalls streets in Ceuta.

In Ceuta the Holy Week is fantastic because the people like it. That the procession go out with the militaries and legiones too.

In my opinion the procession that I like is " The Meeting " " El Encuentro " because it is when the Virgin meets with her son " Jesus ".

The penitents with tunics and a purple mask and sash. These walk with the float that has Jesus on it. The others penitents wear white tunics and a green powled hat and sash who go with the Virgin's float.

If it  is raining the floats don't go out and the bearers are very sad because they have practising for a long time.

This year  all the floats could go out because the weather was very good so everyone was happy. 

Here in Spain, in Ceuta, the Holy Week, the processions, etc. are very important for us, the worshipers (the cristians).

Holy Week is specially celebrated in the South of Spain, in Andalucia. Many people take part in the processions, not only adults, but children, too. For many years, Holy Week here in Spain has been very important and meaningful. That's why people who like it very much take part a lot and take care of the details about it.

For me, Holy Wek is my favourite holiday, I don't know exactly why. Maybe it is because since I was a child, my mother has tried to bring me up to like ''Holy Week''.

In my opinion, one of the most beautiful floats is ''The Meetting'' where two floats meet and greet each other.

It's very exciting for me to see the Holy Week processions, especially here because I think each Holy Week in Ceuta is different from the others one.

Finally I think that what brings people to like Holy Week, is because each procession and float has its own ''personality''.  

Last week was Holy week. I think that Holy week is boring because I don't belive in God but for the other people it is the one of best time of the year. When they watche they cry a lot because they become emotional. In my I don't like Holy week even though the "thrones" I think are very  beautiful with their wooden cared sigles covered where in silver or gold.

This year in the Holy week I didn't go the processions. I was in Malaga. My parents asked me to go to the center to watch the processions. But if you go you  need to walk a lot so I didn't go.

My sister told me that the most beautiful processions in Spain are in Malaga and in Sevilla.

In Spain Holy Week is an important time for christians. The brotherhoods bring some image from the cathedral or their churches to celebrate when Jesus went into Jerusalen and the people welcomed him with palms, when he death and resurrection. In my opinion the best days are Palm Sunday because is the first day of "the Holy Week", and Tuesday, because the bearers represent very well the meeting of Christ with the Virgin which is called the "Encuentro".