The Mayer Family: More on Semana Santa

All week long, Spain has been celebrating Semana Santa (Holy Week). Honestly, we have mixed emotions on the celebrations here. While the celebrations are religious in nature and they are done to depict scenes of the life of Jesus (see previous blog), in many ways it feels more like a competition to see which church puts on the best show (it reminds me just a little bit of our Mennonite “World Series” softball tournaments to see which Mennonite church has the best softball players :). The amount of money and time put into each procession is extremely extravagant and into the thousands and thousands of dollars. Interestingly enough, this week when I was talking with my friend Jose about Semana Santa and I was asking him if he enjoys the processions, he said that his wife, who is very religious, does, but he doesn’t enjoy them nor does he plan on watching them at all. When I asked him why, he said, because they (the religious celebrations) are idolatrous. Wow! He hit the nail right on the head. As strange as this may sound, being Holy Week and all, we have sensed a profound heaviness and strong spiritual oppression all week. It is so difficult to see people so fervently enthused and passionate about these religious celebrations, but yet not really understand, comprehend, nor live out the true message of Jesus’ life and teachings.

Video of procession—This is a procession we watched close by our house on Thursday evening.

We’ve been told that each of these “KKK” hats (see previous blog for more on these hats) cost around $500.

How many hours do I have to walk anyway (says the guy in the middle)? Yeah…well…that would be maybe about 6 or 7 more hours…better not start looking at the watch now!