This
was our last procession we saw in Seville. We really wanted to see one during
the night when all the giant candles are lit and this cofradía passed right
next to one of Seville’s iconic and slightly crazy constructions, the Setas. It
provided a nice backdrop to the pointy hats, the traditional in front of the
modern. It also meant that we didn’t have to stand on a narrow street pushed
back to the wall but had ample space to see it up close.
This
procession was pretty big with 1500 nazarenos wearing a white tunic and their
face was covered by blue silk. And the candles were lit. There was wax
everywhere! The first person’s tunic in the middle was covered by wax dropping
on him from his two escorts on his sides.
You
see, these candles are very long and they have to be held in an angle otherwise
all the wax will flow down on the holder’s hands. And then I realised, that’s
why they’re wearing gloves! The white-blue nazarenos were an incredible sight when they moved along in front of us in a neat line with their brown giant candles.
We noticed that even though most of them were wearing the traditional sandals, some of them were wearing only socks or walked barefeet!
I
remembered my Spanish teachers telling me about the wax balls that children
have during the Semana Santa. Every time the procession stopped, children
swarmed poor nazarenos asking for either sweeties or wax. They took the ball
and let their candle drop on the ball, making it slightly bigger. After a week
of procession this ball can grow considerably large. Apparently there are wax
balls that have been in use for three generations now and their size can be
close to a football’s. Quite impressive!
We
also caught a costalero, one of the people who carry the paso itself underneath
it. Here in Seville they carry it on their necks, have a look at this guy’s
neck, it was rubbed red!
The paso.
La
Hiniesta was one of my favourite cofradías.
In
the next blog I will show you processions in other parts of Andalusia, too.
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