How Sevilla works: basically there are cathedrals or churches hidden on just about every street. It seems like most of them have some kind of statues that get put on floats and brought out on a procession. I really have no idea, but Semana Santa just finished and now they are already starting up with more processions.
It is 12:25 am and I just came in from watching one go by and go into a building. I can still hear them playing.
The ones they have now are mostly of the Virgen and she isn't sad any more because that was for Easter. No daggers in the heart because her son died. The floats now have pink flowers and look really spring or summer-like. The Virgen looks all pretty, not so austere like she did during Semana Santa.
As I followed the one by the cathedral, I thought I will be spoiled for ever living anywhere else. At least that is how I feel now. How can you not be completely encantada of a place where people are constantly gathering and hanging out and relaxing in the street, and following floats and bands playing for hours? I also feel incredulous, and sorry for repeating myself, that in 2011, in a very modern world in which even the Chinese have lost most of their traditions and things are so homogenised, young people in Andalucia still spend a good deal of time on and have a great deal of respect for something so ancient, and that it is a very important part of their lives. It is alive for them - I am not talking about the religious aspect, for that I can't speak - just the ancient ritual and tradition. I hope they never, ever lose this.
These traditions go against very much of what I have been taught all my life, in a culture that only values efficiency, reason, speed, convenience, lack of nuisance, sensibility. All of that is broken here. I watched the band standing in the street (everything comes to a stand-still every 10 minutes or so, for the costaleros to rest). They were goofing around, one guy making faces behind the another's head, at someone standing a distance away with a camera. Then they started playing again. This one only had about 12 trumpets, but enough other stuff. The guys carrying candles started moving towards us from the other end of the street and finally the float rounded the corner and then sat for another while. It was 11:45 or so, and dark out. The float was of course lit up by candles, like they usually are. Eventually it made its way down past our apartment, and then took quite a while working its way into the door of a rather non-descript building, that I always thought was a school. They had to manouver it around several tight corners, due to cars parked in the street, after which they set it down again for a while. A guy got up on a ladder (they always carry them behind the float), to remove the ornate gold halo from the Virgen's head, so they could get it through the door. The float had probably only an inch or two on each side, to get through the doors. There were two sets to go through. When it got into a courtyard like area inside, people threw flower petals down on it (bougainvillea, rose and whatever else).
The incredible thing is that people carry them. They insist on carrying them, they love it. Then no less amazing for someone from North America, is that people are still making new ones, and parts for old ones. The floats have wooden frames, on which the ornate gold or silver sides are put. These are very likely made by some artesan. I believe they are probably wood, plated with metal. Some statues date from hundreds of years ago, others are still being made - there are sculptors who do this. They are beautiful of course. Then there is the clothing of the statues, which can be extremely ornate, embroidered with gold or silver thread. They have either gold halos (Virgen) or rays emanating (Jesus). Then there are the flowers - massive mounds of them - all fresh, all real - in beds, as the floor of the float, and in large "bouquets", more like huge mounds, perfectly shaped and regular. Last but sometimes most affecting for a quality and tradition-starved North American, are real candles, in beautiful glass holders, at the top of ornate scroll gold or silver candelabras. You might want to call it overdone, but not when you start to realise it is all REAL. None of it is cheap or quickly thrown together. Nothing is fiberglass or plastic, cheaply spray painted.
The marching bands often look somewhat military in their style of clothing and hats, and I suppose the drum rolls and the brass - all this originally came from some kind of military tradition. But the marches can be quite slow, and the music can have a lot of feeling. It is nothing like the kind I ever saw before coming here.
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