So it has been a bit since my last entry. Since the last time that I wrote I went down to the province of Andalucia, where I spent a week and a half with Dori and Antonio celebrating Semana Santa. Semana Santa, Holy Week, is observed throughout Spain since most of the population is Catholic, but it is celebrated more fully in the southern province of Andalucia. The week starts on the Sunday before Easter, Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday). Processions take place in the cities and towns throughout the province and continue throughout the week. The only day that there are not processions is on Saturday.
I went to the town of Alcala la Real, a town in Jaen and where Dori is from. Although we got there Wednesday night, I was still able to seen quite a few processions and get a glimpse into what Holy Week is like in Andalucia. The processions were small because Alcala is a town and not a city, but in Granada and Sevilla they have larger processions that are much more elaborate and people from across Spain and the rest of the world go there to see the amazing sights. Although the processions that I saw were not as large, they were still amazing, seeing that it was my first time seeing anything like them. It is interesting to see something new with someone who has seen it their entire life. They are able to provide you with information, but you are also able to provide them with a new perspective on what they are accustomed to seeing.
One of the things that most stuck out for me, even though I knew that I would be seeing them, were the outfits that were worn by the people in the processions. To put it bluntly, they are like the outfits that are worn by members of the KKK, but more colorful. Of course here they do not have the same meaning that they have in the United States so the people here don’t see anything odd about people walking around dressed as such. People even (in larger cities) wait decades to be able to be in a procession and wear one of these outfits (people put their young children on waiting lists so that they can be in the procession when they are in their 30s!). It took me a bit to get used to the outfits, but once I did I was able to realize the beauty that the people saw in them. Most of them were purple, a color that is associated with Lent and penance during the season, but there were also ones in different colors.
The processions usually consisted of people wearing these outfits walking through the town with candles, women wearing black dresses and veils, called mantillas, people dressed as the 12 apostles, and people carrying a float-type structure with flowers and either a statue of Mary or Jesus on it, depending on the procession. For example, the procession on Friday night only had a statue of Mary, seeing that Jesus had already been put in the tomb.
Of all of the processions that I saw, my favorite one was the procession on Friday night. It was a silent procession and there were people that walked in the procession that wore shackles on their feet and no shoes (which must have been difficult since it was pretty chilly that night). There isn’t a specific rule that the procession must be silent, but it is known throughout the town that the last procession is silent. It was amazing to have the only sound around be the sound of the shackles hitting the pavement as the procession continued down the street.
Another interesting thing that I observed during the procession was the singers. People would come out to their balcony and single a song to either Mary or Jesus and the procession would stop until they were done singing. I heard some of the most beautiful voices and I know that I would not have had the courage to do that.
During the last two days of Holy Week, Holy Thursday and Good Friday, you are not supposed to eat meat. Therefore, the meat in meals is replaced with fish. There are traditional dishes that are served during those days, including a soup made from fish “meatballs” and bacalao in a tomato sauce. It was a bit of a problem for me since I am not a huge fan of seafood, but I felt guilty saying no to Dori’s family when they would offer me food, so I tried it. Not my favorite, especially the bacalao, but I am glad that I tried it and know that I don’t like it instead of saying that I don’t like something without trying it.
Eating seemed to be the main thing that occurred during the week; I feel like I gained at least 10 pounds in the last week. One of the traditional dishes that is served during Holy Week and that I got to eat is a desert called papajotes, which is basically like a large doughnut hole (fried sweet dough) that is put into a mixture of milk, sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. It was definitely a heavy dish, but either way it was pretty yummy. Arroz con leche, rice with milk, sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest, is also served during the week. My mom makes arroz con leche back home, but she does not put lemon in it and also usually puts raisins in it, but both versions of it that I have tried are delicious. There are also sweets that are traditional in the region: churros, pestiños, empanadas and roscas. They are all different versions of fried sweet dough, just in different forms. Roscas are basically doughnuts, but not as fluffy as the doughnuts that we know in the U.S., they are much heavier and have tons of sugar on them; pestiños are little pieces of dough formed into a bow that are fried and topped with tons of sugar; empanadas are dough that is filled with sweetened spaghetti squash, fried and coated in sugar; churros are dough that is fried into sticks, the only thing that was not coated in sugar, unlike the churros that we know in the U.S. that are topped with cinnamon and sugar. They were definitely very heavy and I had to try them a little at a time. I love sweets, but they were a bit much for me all at once. How much food is fried in Spain is something that surprised me and that I did not expect to see before I came here. I feel like there is a stigma about American food being fried but no one ever hears about how much they fry food in Spain.
Throughout the week I was able to meet all of Dori’s childhood friends. It was fun and interesting to see her with all of her old friends. They all have their different quirks but they are all super nice and were very welcoming and treated me as if I had known them for a long time, which was nice since I think that sometimes it can be hard to be the new person coming into a group of friends that that known each other for so long and you don’t know if they are going to accept you or not. I think that that is something very special, to have the same group of friends since you were small and despite everything that you have done in life you remain friends. It was also cute to see their kids playing together, which definitely made me smile.
One afternoon Dori took me up to the castle that is in the town. Alcala used to have a Moorish castle that is pretty well known by Spaniards. The conquering Alcala by the Catholics was the key to conquering Granada and pushing the Moors out of Spain. It was fun to go up with her and have an amazing view of the entire city. She told me how it used to be in bad shape and how when she was younger people would go up there just to hang out or get into mischief. Only recently was it restored and she said that it looks so much better than it did before. We went into the church that is in the fortress that was built during the Catholic rule. Most of the floor of the church has been removed to expose the Moorish city that the church was built on top of. It was just cool to be up there and take in a part of history, history that is so different from American history. I think back to middle school and high school and think about history class and how I used to think that there was so much to remember and so many dates. American history is nothing compared to the history in Spain since so much has occurred her (or at least so much has occurred here during rules and has therefore been documented better than the history of what occurred in the U.S. prior to Europeans going over and establishing rule). It is amazing to think about how different society was long ago. How rulers of kingdoms were younger than I am! For example, Isabel II was 11 when she took control of Spain!! That just baffles me…
The last few days that I was in Andalucia I took advantage of being so close to Granada and went down and explored the city on my own. I was able to go to the Alha
mbra, although I could only get a ticket to get into the gardens since they had sold out of tickets to get into the palace. The Alhambra used to be a Moorish palace and fortress built in the 14th Century and the center of the Moorish rule in Spain until Granada was conquered in the 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando. Some portions of it were used by the Christian rulers and the palace of Carlos V can be found there as well. It fell into disrepair and was “rediscovered” in the 19th century and restored. It is now one of the most visited sites in all of Spain, mainly because of the Moorish architecture that can be found there, and is a World Heritage Site. Even though I was not able to go into the palace, I still had a wonderful time and was able to see some of the amazing architecture that people from around the world come to see. It was peaceful to sit in the gardens and enjoy the nice afternoon and appreciate being in one of the most well known places in Spain. I sat there trying to picture what it was like in the 14th century and how different the place was.
All in all I had a great time during my week off. Going back to class was hard, but it was in a way nice to get back to reality since I actually do really like my classes. That’s it for now… Hasta pronto!
I went to the town of Alcala la Real, a town in Jaen and where Dori is from. Although we got there Wednesday night, I was still able to seen quite a few processions and get a glimpse into what Holy Week is like in Andalucia. The processions were small because Alcala is a town and not a city, but in Granada and Sevilla they have larger processions that are much more elaborate and people from across Spain and the rest of the world go there to see the amazing sights. Although the processions that I saw were not as large, they were still amazing, seeing that it was my first time seeing anything like them. It is interesting to see something new with someone who has seen it their entire life. They are able to provide you with information, but you are also able to provide them with a new perspective on what they are accustomed to seeing.
One of the things that most stuck out for me, even though I knew that I would be seeing them, were the outfits that were worn by the people in the processions. To put it bluntly, they are like the outfits that are worn by members of the KKK, but more colorful. Of course here they do not have the same meaning that they have in the United States so the people here don’t see anything odd about people walking around dressed as such. People even (in larger cities) wait decades to be able to be in a procession and wear one of these outfits (people put their young children on waiting lists so that they can be in the procession when they are in their 30s!). It took me a bit to get used to the outfits, but once I did I was able to realize the beauty that the people saw in them. Most of them were purple, a color that is associated with Lent and penance during the season, but there were also ones in different colors.
The processions usually consisted of people wearing these outfits walking through the town with candles, women wearing black dresses and veils, called mantillas, people dressed as the 12 apostles, and people carrying a float-type structure with flowers and either a statue of Mary or Jesus on it, depending on the procession. For example, the procession on Friday night only had a statue of Mary, seeing that Jesus had already been put in the tomb.
Of all of the processions that I saw, my favorite one was the procession on Friday night. It was a silent procession and there were people that walked in the procession that wore shackles on their feet and no shoes (which must have been difficult since it was pretty chilly that night). There isn’t a specific rule that the procession must be silent, but it is known throughout the town that the last procession is silent. It was amazing to have the only sound around be the sound of the shackles hitting the pavement as the procession continued down the street.
Another interesting thing that I observed during the procession was the singers. People would come out to their balcony and single a song to either Mary or Jesus and the procession would stop until they were done singing. I heard some of the most beautiful voices and I know that I would not have had the courage to do that.During the last two days of Holy Week, Holy Thursday and Good Friday, you are not supposed to eat meat. Therefore, the meat in meals is replaced with fish. There are traditional dishes that are served during those days, including a soup made from fish “meatballs” and bacalao in a tomato sauce. It was a bit of a problem for me since I am not a huge fan of seafood, but I felt guilty saying no to Dori’s family when they would offer me food, so I tried it. Not my favorite, especially the bacalao, but I am glad that I tried it and know that I don’t like it instead of saying that I don’t like something without trying it.
Eating seemed to be the main thing that occurred during the week; I feel like I gained at least 10 pounds in the last week. One of the traditional dishes that is served during Holy Week and that I got to eat is a desert called papajotes, which is basically like a large doughnut hole (fried sweet dough) that is put into a mixture of milk, sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. It was definitely a heavy dish, but either way it was pretty yummy. Arroz con leche, rice with milk, sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest, is also served during the week. My mom makes arroz con leche back home, but she does not put lemon in it and also usually puts raisins in it, but both versions of it that I have tried are delicious. There are also sweets that are traditional in the region: churros, pestiños, empanadas and roscas. They are all different versions of fried sweet dough, just in different forms. Roscas are basically doughnuts, but not as fluffy as the doughnuts that we know in the U.S., they are much heavier and have tons of sugar on them; pestiños are little pieces of dough formed into a bow that are fried and topped with tons of sugar; empanadas are dough that is filled with sweetened spaghetti squash, fried and coated in sugar; churros are dough that is fried into sticks, the only thing that was not coated in sugar, unlike the churros that we know in the U.S. that are topped with cinnamon and sugar. They were definitely very heavy and I had to try them a little at a time. I love sweets, but they were a bit much for me all at once. How much food is fried in Spain is something that surprised me and that I did not expect to see before I came here. I feel like there is a stigma about American food being fried but no one ever hears about how much they fry food in Spain.
Throughout the week I was able to meet all of Dori’s childhood friends. It was fun and interesting to see her with all of her old friends. They all have their different quirks but they are all super nice and were very welcoming and treated me as if I had known them for a long time, which was nice since I think that sometimes it can be hard to be the new person coming into a group of friends that that known each other for so long and you don’t know if they are going to accept you or not. I think that that is something very special, to have the same group of friends since you were small and despite everything that you have done in life you remain friends. It was also cute to see their kids playing together, which definitely made me smile.
One afternoon Dori took me up to the castle that is in the town. Alcala used to have a Moorish castle that is pretty well known by Spaniards. The conquering Alcala by the Catholics was the key to conquering Granada and pushing the Moors out of Spain. It was fun to go up with her and have an amazing view of the entire city. She told me how it used to be in bad shape and how when she was younger people would go up there just to hang out or get into mischief. Only recently was it restored and she said that it looks so much better than it did before. We went into the church that is in the fortress that was built during the Catholic rule. Most of the floor of the church has been removed to expose the Moorish city that the church was built on top of. It was just cool to be up there and take in a part of history, history that is so different from American history. I think back to middle school and high school and think about history class and how I used to think that there was so much to remember and so many dates. American history is nothing compared to the history in Spain since so much has occurred her (or at least so much has occurred here during rules and has therefore been documented better than the history of what occurred in the U.S. prior to Europeans going over and establishing rule). It is amazing to think about how different society was long ago. How rulers of kingdoms were younger than I am! For example, Isabel II was 11 when she took control of Spain!! That just baffles me…
The last few days that I was in Andalucia I took advantage of being so close to Granada and went down and explored the city on my own. I was able to go to the Alha
mbra, although I could only get a ticket to get into the gardens since they had sold out of tickets to get into the palace. The Alhambra used to be a Moorish palace and fortress built in the 14th Century and the center of the Moorish rule in Spain until Granada was conquered in the 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando. Some portions of it were used by the Christian rulers and the palace of Carlos V can be found there as well. It fell into disrepair and was “rediscovered” in the 19th century and restored. It is now one of the most visited sites in all of Spain, mainly because of the Moorish architecture that can be found there, and is a World Heritage Site. Even though I was not able to go into the palace, I still had a wonderful time and was able to see some of the amazing architecture that people from around the world come to see. It was peaceful to sit in the gardens and enjoy the nice afternoon and appreciate being in one of the most well known places in Spain. I sat there trying to picture what it was like in the 14th century and how different the place was. All in all I had a great time during my week off. Going back to class was hard, but it was in a way nice to get back to reality since I actually do really like my classes. That’s it for now… Hasta pronto!
