Holy week in Huelva.- www.spainsouthwest.com



Like so many others, the Holy Week processions in Huelva are certified as "Fiesta of National Touristic Interest" and thus touted as one of the best in Spain (we'll leave that to each visitor to decide). Locals undoubtedly rate this as one of their biggest and best festivals (after the carnival perhaps?).

The towns of Ayamonte, Isla Cristina and Aracena in Huelva province also put on especially spectacular processions. Throughout the province you can expect to find the traditional celebrations which schedule solemn processions throughout the week, but saving the height of the activity for Thursday, Friday and Saturday in anticipation of Easter Sunday.

As in cities across the region, the entire ambience of Huelva and many of its town and cities changes with the onset of Holy Week. You can expect traffic to be cut off to the city centre and robed members of Catholic brotherhoods and "cofradías" to be out and about as they carry out business related to the festivals and prepare for their processions.

Remember to taste the flavours of Holy Week, ask at local restaurants and bakeries for a serving of the most typical Semana Santa Gastronomy in the capital city and in each village to see how the traditional Catholic prohibition to eat meat during this time has inspired local cuisine.



Holy week in Seville.- 


In essence, Semana Santa involves the marching in procession of brotherhoods of the church and penitents, followed by elaborate floats on which sit seventeenth century images of the Virgin or Christ. For months beforehand, the bands practice their short, fervent flamenco style hymns about the Passion and the Virgin's sorrows throughout the city.

Seville has various shops dedicated to the sale of Nazareno robes, including sandles and Capirote. Many of these shops can be found on the Calle Alcaiceria de la Loza. The cone shape Capirote are made to measure while you wait.


Throughout the week, the processions leave churches all over the city from early afternoon onwards, snaking through the city and back to their resting place many hours later. Good Friday morning is the climax, when the procession leave the churches at midnight and move through the town for most of the night. The highlight is the arrival at the cathedral in the early hours of the morning. On the Thursday, the local women wear black and it's considered disrespectful for tourists to wear T-shirts and shorts.

The final lap of the official route goes from La Campana to Calle Sierpes to the cathedral and around the Giralda and the Bishop's Palace. This is a good area to watch the processions. Grandstands are erected in the main squares, you may be able to buy a back row seat as the best sell out weeks in advance.

Without doubt the local heroes of the night are the lads who carry the thrones. Always hidden away in Seville, but you might catch a glimpse when they pop out for a well earned drink.

The processions take place during the week leading up to but not including Easter Sunday.