Processions

Here in Salamanca and throughout much of Spain all of last week was quite the spectacle. Starting the Friday before Good Friday, there are religious processions everyday. Different ‘cofrades’ each have their own specific manner of dress and doing the processions. Some of them start during the night at 9pm. Others are during the day, and few are early in the morning starting at 5 or 7am. Each procession has one or more ‘pasos’ which is kind of like a float. It’s decorated with flowers and candles and usually has a statue of Jesus or of Mary. They’re carried by people all during the procession, and some of them had over 100 people carrying them. Many of the processions remember the walk that Jesus took bearing the cross, and a few do a Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) as they go. Even the people here know that the cofrades look like KKK uniforms, but are quick to point out that they’ve been doing this much longer than that, and they had these uniforms before the US even existed.
Others are more normal in dress. This was my favorite procession which passed over the Roman Bridge.On Easter Sunday, many of the cofrades march in a a procession together. One paso with Jesus and one with the Virgin meet in the Plaza Mayor and ‘dance.’ It was something to see. There were also people in traditional Salmatine dress that danced. The plaza was packed and there were a number of TV stations there as well. My favorites were the processions that left early in the morning because they were less of a tourist spectacle. No one gets up at 7am here. It’s still dark at 7, it’s getting light at 8, and sunrise has got to be somewhere around there. Crazy Spain. :)