Gibraltar, Morocco, Sevilla, Malaga, Priego, Cordoba... Whew (PART II)

Our Thursday night continued with the hustle and bustle that is Semana Santa.  We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off watching the different processions.  The first one we accidentally watched because we were trying to meet up with some friends.  Then after that we headed to a new restaurant that had just opened up.  It is right next to the beautiful Fuente del Rey and it is completely outdoors.  After enjoying some food, we headed to one of the churches in Priego to wait for the figures to be placed back inside the church.  Literally, the entire town was squished together in this plaza!
 

We watched more people dressed up in the KKK costumes walk by.  Today's color was green.  The colors of the costumes change everyday to match a particular religious theme.  Then everything went completely silent.  All you could hear was a man's voice as he sang from one of the balconies nearby.  He was singing to the Virgin as she passed by.  This time around, I got to literally stand next to the processions as they passed by.  I was able to count and see that there was indeed 200 people carrying each figurine.  And as mentioned earlier, each statue gets its own marching band composed of at least 50 people each.  Another thing Priego does that is different from the other processions I watched is that one of the marching bands along with an additional 50 men dress up in military costumes to replicate the military during Jesus' death.  And of course, leave it to Spain to take the saddest day of the religious year and turn it into a huge party... after the statues had safely made it back inside the church a little after 1am (quite the feat if you ask me since they're are enormously tall), everyone went out to the discos for partying. 

 Jesus

 Jesus

 Mary

 The Marching Band "soldiers"

 Only 1/4 of the men seen carrying the statue

 Incredibly tall Mary

 Ducking down low to fit through the church doors

By Spanish standards, Sara and I called it an early night around 3:30am.  We wanted to be alive for the infamous Semana Santa activities for the next day.

The next day, we woke up kind of early and headed straight to the first procession.  The three figurines are carried through almost all of the streets in Priego staring at 11:00 am until 5:00pm.  We made it to the first one and got a great view of the procession.  We then raced to another apartment Sara's family owns to watch from that balcony.  I was just happy to be viewing the processions from above.  Little did I know that I was safest standing away from the actual figurines.  You see, Priego does this thing, where instead of having a practiced and planned group of men carrying the Jesus figurine throughout the city, it is instead a free for all for all of the men of the city to clamor and try to carry it.  I didn't get a good view of this when I was at the first procession at ground level.  But from the balcony, I was able to see the pure mayhem that insued.  Men were pushing and hitting each other to try to fit under the Jesus to carry it.  Because they hadn't practiced together, the Jesus had one too many close calls running into street lights and walls and people.  I watched innocent bystanders get pushed to the ground and almost trampled because the men carrying the statue never walking straight but instead zig-zagged all over the place.  It was crazy!  

The "soldiers" again

 The calm before the storm...

Pure chaos

 Jesus almost crashing into the building

Watching people almost getting trampled

 

It also kind of made me a little mad because the violence and craziness going on around the Jesus figurine was the exact opposite of what Jesus is all about.  Instead of the men being peaceful, they were violently hitting and pushing each other just to be able to say that they had carried the Jesus.   And by my beliefs, the actual figurine was being mishandled.  Something like that should be sacred and treated with respect and kid gloves.  Instead it was the verge of being tipped over onto the ground or crashing into things.  I actually hated this aspect of the procession.

But after Jesus passed, my huffiness dissipated, and we next walked to the highest point in Priego where we waited for the processions to make it to the top.  This part of Priego is quite the walk.  Once at the top, there was a church and lots of crosses.  We secured a place to sit while we waited.

At the very top

 

A tradition that can only be found in Priego is called the "hornazo" --pronounced "hornatho" when speaking to someone from Priego.  It is this a chicken made out of bread with a hard boiled egg inside.

 My hornazo

 The egg inside

Each person makes or buys one of these things and then wears it on the belt loop of their pants all day.  

And then at the top of mountain, once the Jesus figurine arrives, the people carrying him move him up and down and side ways so it looks like he's doing the signing of the cross aka blessing the hornazos.   Meanwhile, all of the people hold their bread thing up in the air while he does the sign of the cross three times.  

Everyone holding their hornazos while Jesus blesses them

After the blessing is completed, everyone eats their hornazo while walking back down the mountain.  Basically the thing tasted like your basic pie crust.  And it was a much needed snack after spending our entire day running around Priego.  Next we were headed to Sara's house for lunch while we waited for the next procession to pass.  About an hour later, the figurines had made it back down the mountain and were now walking the main street in Priego.  We watched from Sara's balcony.  We were also lucky enough to have the presence of this day's singer join us on her balconies.  When the Mary passed, the streets once again went silent, and he sang to her.

Aside from the figurines and the people dressed up like KKK, there were other people who wore chains around their feet while they walked barefoot, some carrying crowns of thorns, giant crosses, and other regalia. 

This was the last of Semana Santa processions that I watched.  Good Friday is the biggest celebrated day in most cities.  I was lucky enough to see processions in Sevilla, Malaga, and Priego.  Each one was very different from the other, but I preferred Priego the most.  

On Saturday, I headed to the city of Cordoba to celebrate my birthday with my American friends here in Spain.  Maggie, Maura, Katherine and myself met up for a delicious lunch in a patio in one of the restaurants.  Afterwards, we enjoyed coffee on top of the roof of one of the bars.  Here we got lucky to see a Spanish cover band of 90's songs.  Funnily enough, we were able to recognize some of the music they were playing and were even able to sing and dance along.

 The Spanish 90's cover band... yes that man is wearing a zebra print skirt...

Maura and Katherine left after the concert to head back to their pueblo.  Their town was holding a Semana Santa event that only happens once every 100 years.  Maggie and I continued celebrating by going out for pinchos (the food made famous by the North of Spain).  We later met up with Sara and my other spanish friends at a bar that served enormous drinks with candy at the bottom.  These drinks could easily be shared among five people.  With each drink you were given funny glasses to put on and wear.  

After this bar, we headed out to the discos where we all danced the night away until 6:30am.  Sunday and Monday (my actual) birthday were spent relaxing.  All in all the entire Semana Santa/vacation week was a wonderful success.

A brief note I forgot to write in the last post:

When I was in Morocco, I learned some Arabic words...

waha= okay

shucran= thank you

not to be confused with "sucran" which means "drunk"

la=no

lala=grandmother

lalala= you look like an idiot singing