Today is the biggest day of the year, probably. Domingo de Ramos. I think it's like Palm Sunday. Just in case I haven't explained Semana Santa before, I think this is going to be one of the most fantastic things I may ever see. I suppose it is like a cultural wonder of the world. The processions started Friday but there were only little ones, a few per day. They start in earnest today and last all week. Alicia's family is filling the house. They've come to visit for a few days, and Marta is gone home to Segovia for the holiday.
As for me, I did hardcore flamenco last night. Spent an hour and a half in an ill-informed way, despite half and hour of internet research on how to find the place, taking a bus and attempting to find a taxi, taking the metro, and then walking to the very edge of Sevilla near the highway, to a neighborhood where it looked like the outskirts of Vancouver, like some far corner of Surrey. It was good I had Ernesto with me, the Korean anthropology student. Luckily my two friends in Sevilla both appreciate the serious cante, which is really cool, as not everyone does, especially those new to flamenco.

Near the city hall, there is a large square that has been entirely filled with bleachers and wooden chairs have been set up on these in neat rows, with six facing each other. All the processions from all over the city go to the cathedral. Each procession has the men carrying at least one float, musicians, and in some cases, especially Thursday at dawn, singers singing Saetas.

Last night I stopped into a church on the way to meet Ernesto, where people were gathered in front and milling in and out, to look at two floats full of candles with statues on top. One had an enormous Virgen statue with her gold embroidered robe hanging behind, the other had about 5 statues, depicting a scene from Jesus' pre-crucifixion including a bunch of Roman guards.

This is totally incomprehensible to me. My North American mind cannot get around an entire city dedicating itself to carrying ornate gilded floats with religious statues in ornamented garments, all with real candles. These floats are carried for up to 13 hours, sometimes from 1 in the afternoon to 2 in the morning. They take shifts but may actually be under it for a 7 hours. People carry, and some give out little pocket pictures of these same statues, a guide is produced that gives detailed information about each hermandad (brotherhood) that will carry a float, how many women each one has and how long they've been involved. It give the date each hermandad started, ranging from 1413 to 2011. People plan ahead which spots they want to be in at certain times of the day, to see various processions or points at which certain processions turn certain corners. The book helps plan this, and also includes a place for notes, and suggests special features of each float, or the music that might be new this year in each procession. There is one page with a trivia game for the kids, if you get bored waiting at a specific spot, but the plaza or street where each procession is going to be is scheduled down to the half hour. There are 18 different processions today, from 9 different hermandades. The points where Giralda TV will be filming are highlighted in red. The booklet is meant to be saved as a keepsake of this year's festivities.

I will try to keep you updated with what it actually looks like and feels like on the street. I should be able to do that, as I'll have a full week of the same thing.