Semana Santa in Ronda

On Monday we went to see the City of Dreams, Ronda (you can read more about it here) where in the evening we watched the cofradía of Santa Cecilia. After watching many Holy Week processions in Seville this one seemed utterly different. We got used to the dark, sombre colours of the nazarenos where everything was combined with black or white. Here the colours where bright purple and green! The other main difference was that the children didn’t have pointy hats, they were wearing something that reminded us of the pharaohs in Egypt.

Up until now we just looked at the itinerary of the processions and found a big square where we could watch them moving along in front of us. This was the first time we actually saw a paso leaving the church. The sun shone on the entrance of the church and when it appeared the brass band played a lovely tune. The paso shows Jesus praying with an angel behind him and there were real olive branches behind him. It was beautiful.

The atmosphere in Ronda was completely different to Seville. Here it had a very local feel, everybody knew everybody else, people walked up to the nazarenos for a chat during the break of the costaleros and the children were playing around in their bright outfits.

After dinner we went to see them again, by then they had been walking for hours. The candles were all lit up and we were amazed that they let this happen! All those small children swinging around those huge candles… We were looking around for an ambulance (in England there would be one waiting at every corner) but did not see not only a car but any kind of first aid help on site. (It does not mean there wasn’t any, of course.) On the other hand we were pleased to see that the nazarenos were looked after by the audience, people were going around with bottles offering them water (not only the one they actually knew) and children giving out sweets to everybody.

We saw this little boy wearing a proper costalero outfit, he was very cute.

Another very special moment was when the paso stopped right in front of us. We saw one of the costaleros coming out for a rest and another one going in. 

Before they lifted the paso there was a short conversation with the llamador. We didn’t understand most of it but it seemed that he encourages them and they replied in chorus. For some reason I found this very touching. Paul managed to film it for me.

This cofradía was very similar but still very different to the ones we had seen before. It left us elated and curious to see whether it will be a different experience in other places in Andalusia.