Semana Santa- Spanish Spring Break

In Spain, the week before Easter is a big deal. It is one of the most important religious holidays and one of the biggest travel times of the year. This week is called Semana Santa or Holy Week. Most Spaniards have a four day weekend and some take the entire week off for vacation. The week is filled with religious processions in different cities all around Spain each with different meanings representing different events that happened before the resurrection of Jesus. This is my first time in Spain during Semana Santa and I wanted to learn all about it and see a procession. 

Like a typical Spaniard, we actually left Madrid and headed to the beach. We were invited to spend the weekend at the beach house of our friends Carol and Alberto along with 2 other couples. Their beach place is near Alicante in the state of Valencia, on the Mediterranean. The forcast called for rain the entire time but we hadn't seen water in a long time so we decided to brave the conditions and head to the beach. 

The castle

Semana Santa is one of the busiest travel times of the year and this means traffic. Our gps Lucy told us it would take us 4 hours and 45 minutes to drive to Alicante so we were in for a long drive plus we hit traffic so it was quite the journey. We decided we needed to stop to stretch our legs and get something to drink and thought we'd pass Albacete and then stop. Well as we were driving we saw a sign for Chinchilla and I thought it was a funny name for a town. Then we saw Chinchilla had a castle and we decided here is the place to stop- we love castles! So we drove into the tiny pueblo and headed up through the narrow streets to find the castle.

It has a moat!

And a drawbridge

The main square where we had a beer

The hooded people that are the symbol of Semana Santa

Finally, 6 hours later we arrived in San Juan. We were met with rain but it was fun to see the Mediterranean with big waves and stormy. The group decided they wanted to check out a Medieval Market that was happening so we grabbed the umbrellas and headed out. The market had booths with food and crafts and people dressed up in their medieval themed outfits. There was one tent that served tea and hookas so we all agreed to stop in.

Tea and Hookas

The next day, after a major downpour around 3 am, we woke up to find sun! We put on the swimsuits and sun screen and headed to the beach for a couple hours. It wasn't super warm but it was nice. Pablo, of course, jumped right in the water and made me as well. It was freezing! We took a nice walk down the beach and felt pretty lucky to be chilling at the beach, swimming in the Mediterranean!

Me and Carol- she makes me look short! ha

Pablo the fish

Awww the Mediterranean!

The pool at the complex we stayed at (ocean front)

 I loved this mountain- so neat to see it so close to the beach

Beach walk before heading to Alicante for dinner

That night we headed to the city of Alicante for drinks and tapas. There was a procession happening that evening and everyone was very kind to stop and watch since I'd never seen one and wanted to. We found a nice spots to watch as they slowly made their way past. The processions have, as the Americans call it, the KKK- people that wear outfits that have the cone-shaped hoods that cover their faces. Obviously the spanish outfits were around way before the KKK stole them and it is kind of sad that the Americans associate this spanish tradition with the KKK but they don't teach American's about spanish semana Santa traditions in school, only the KKK.  But when I first saw the people wearing these costumes in person it was really freaky. It really gave me an eerie feeling seeing their faces covered and eyes looking out through little slits.

This group was blue- they come in a variety of colors

The main event of the procession is the massive alter piece that carries the specific statue of a saint or Mary or Jesus (depends on the group and the day). These alter pieces live in the churches and are brought out once a year for Semana Santa. They are extremely heavy and are carried by groups of men, the number depending on how big it is. These groups take this very seriously and train a lot for these processions. Some even walk the route barefoot. For me it is very interesting to see how seriously people take it because even though Spain is a catholic country a lot of the religious holidays are more traditional than religious and are excuses for a party. So when it rained all over Spain and a lot of these processions were canceled and they showed on tv people crying because of the cancelation it was pretty interesting and educational for me. 

The alter piece carried by the men in white

Here is a video of the men caring the alter around a corner. Sorry you have to turn your head to watch it!

After the procession we headed to the bars for some beers and wine and tapas. On our way to a bar we ran into another procession and actually followed behind the alter because it was the only way to get the bar. Therefore, we became part of the procession! Tradition and bars- typical spanish!

The last day we went to the beach again but it was too cold to swim, even though Pablo did! For lunch we enjoyed traditional paella. The service was horrible but the food was good! Then we headed back to Madrid a day early to try and beat the traffic but we weren't so lucky. But it was ok, we had a great time!