Tomorrow is the night to be up - I was mistaken earlier. Tonight my new friends invited me to watch the futbol game, the only thing that could take attention away from Semana Santa. I am extremely tired. I opted for a short stint of several hours watching the Panaderos. It was in a sitio near my place, and I felt bad for missing Jose's other hermandad the other day, so I wanted to see this one. The crowd wasn't insane like Domingo de Ramos and I survived it quite nicely alone. The misterio contained a real tree, with Jesus standing under it, a total of 9 statues, 4 ornate candelabra, all with numerous real candles. I watched it come out of a tiny street, turn a corner, go a short distance and enter another narrow lane. The tree and the plumes on the headdresses of roman guards danced as the costaleros shifted back and forth, manouvering around the corner.It is a cosa rarisima (raro = weird) to see a float carried by many feet underneath, practically dancing. It is beautiful, in a kind of way that bypasses my mind, and is only slightly recogniseable by some other part of me. Something in your soul does a double-take.
I waited, as I remembered Jose saying he was a devotee of the Virgen, in this hermandad, whereas he likes the Jesus of the other one better. The Virgen always has her own penitentes (guys in the pointy hats). They wore burgundy robes and black pointy hats. They always carry huge candles. There's nothing at all scary about them, and they'll never again have the same negative association. Not when they pass you close enough to breathe on them, and every once in a while they catch your eyes. Sometimes it's a young, really sweet pair of eyes. Other times it's a young guy checking you out. Sometimes it's obviously a girl. They are all ages. They have to adjust their hats sometimes so the eye-holes don't stray too far. One guy had a pair of narrow, squareish rimmed glasses sticking out the eye-holes of his capirote. Other times you see them strolling home with their girlfriend/husband/kid afterwards.
I spotted Jose just before the Virgen float came to the corner. Must have been a change of plans as he was wearing a suit and tie instead of wearing a towel on his head under the float. There was only one line of people between me and the float, and we had crowded in while waiting. This float was larger had to push our wall of bodies back to get around the corner.

A break for a vuelta and to see Hermandad de la Buen Fin (lives next door) coming down the familiar streets I inhabit every day. Can still hear the music of the last float coming back to the church, at 1:30. There is nothing reasonable about this. It makes no sense. Sevillan people devote a huge amount of their time and energy and attention, (throughout the year) to something that is totally ridiculous by the standards I grew up with. There is nothing logical, efficient or sensible about an entire city being beset by dense, impassable crowds in numerous places around the city for hours a day for a whole week. Neither is there anything reasonable about carrying a heavy float on your neck for 7 hours within 13, or walking barefoot on city streets for anywhere from 5-13 hours, carrying a wooden cross on your back with a hood over your head.

I watched young, good looking men of about 20 - the kind with their hair gelled up into a point and jeans perched below their hips - staring with rapt attention, and something like a wistful gaze, at the float as it went around the corner on Amor de Dios. I saw little boys with huge balls of wax that they'd laboured to create, by asking passing penitentes to add a little more wax from their candles.

Semana Santa paso from last year

Here's a link to a youtube video of one of the hermandades last year. This is typical of what is going on all week.