Days 290-296, 29 Mar-4 Apr '15, Semana Santa / Holy Week (AKA: Easter), Alhaurin el Grande, Spain.

We have been lucky enough to experience Christmas in a few different countries and always enjoy the inevitable differences in climate, decorations and of course, food! We've spent Ramadan in several different Muslim countries (easy to do since it's a month). This year we have experienced Easter - Spain Style. Very little chocolate. No bunnies laying eggs, chocolate or otherwise. No commercialism. The festivities start on Holy Thursday with a massive night time procession in a 4 hour loop around the town - rather fortunately, right down our street. Between the drums and brass bands, you might as well watch the procession as anything else is impossible in the fiesta atmosphere. It was incredible to see all the members of our local religious brotherhood decked out in their purple and white robes. "The Purples" are headquartered just down the road at the Chapel of Saint Sebastian and we patiently waited for the procession to begin - around 10.30 pm! It's one of the crazy but nice things about Spain. Even though people were preparing from mid-afternoon onwards, it looked like a Harry Potter/Hogwarts convention with all the tiny children in the mini-purples outfits heading down the street. It was a chilly night so all the participants looked particularly cosy in the thick velvet "ku-klux" outfits. We stood out on our balcony and relished the unusual sights and sounds. In the afternoon a performance was held a nearby square showing the capture of Christ. During the procession the story of Easter continues and captive "Christ" is dragged through the streets being tormented by Romans with crying followers in his wake. The Holy Thursday procession finished with the massive float carrying Christ - hoisted on the shoulders of many, many men. On Friday, the story continues in the afternoon in the plaza with Christ's trial before Pilate - this ends with some very convincing whipping, the application of the crown of thorns, stabbing and vinegar - the massive cross is then brought on stage by the Romans and Christ carries it off stage. We then see him during the final stage of the procession looking utterly exhausted after having carried this massive cross for about 4 hours. The procession heads in a different direction each night - so started with us on Thursday and ended with us on Friday when Christ's float (pictured) was joined by Mary's - carried by many, many frazzled and exhausted women. Hard to describe the scenes in the streets below - religion is still such a massive part of the community here. Older folks were crossing themselves as the giant floats passed by. Religious is not just for the older generations - because of the religious fraternities that provide cultural and musical instruction and so forth, a great many young people are involved too. We even learned a new word - when the children return to school on Monday morning, many are asleep at their desks, exhausted from "processing" all weekend. We didn't stay up till midnight for the ritual crucifixion... we knew how the story ended. An fascinating experience and end to our week of exploring Alhaurin.