semana santa

Semana Santa is a blessing for more than the obvious rising of Christ… Spain takes a giant week long siesta! It seems that the entire country takes their vacation this week whether they leave their homes or relax at home. I enjoyed my Thursday-Thursday during the Holy Week in Spain’s Canary Islands. And, I can honestly say that’s the closest I’ll ever be to a potassium heart attack after eating an abundant amount of Canary Island bananas. So delicious. More importantly, I immensely enjoyed my week of beach bumming around the island. Tenerife was described to me to be the “Hawaii” of Spain. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but Tenerife certainly offered beautiful coastlines and a tropical atmosphere. (Now I’ll have to schedule that Hawaii vaca to make accurate comparisons, it only makes sense.) One odd thing I didn’t realize before going to Tenerife was how many German tourists also would be vacationing in the islands. One evening as a group we collectively decided to embrace the fact that our hotel was hosting an entire population of German retirees and enjoyed the evening on the plaza with 65 + couples listening, clapping, singing and dancing along to corny keyboard versions of American pop songs. (please note: we did in fact find the nightlife on the island, no need to worry) The good news is that the Spanish beach bum doesn’t differ from the American one and I was able to assimilate just fine. Aside from the beach, I toured Loro Parke (Canary Island version of Seaworld) with the girls. We evoked our 7 year old selves to enjoy all the shows of sealions, dolphins, and orca whales  We even stumbled upon the lagoon casino, but once again ran into the 65+ German troops, so we didn’t quite find the Vegas atmosphere we had hoped for.
I returned late Thursday (early morning on Good Friday) to Granada and in time to catch the Good Friday processions. Each church in Granada is responsible for one “cofradía¨ which is essentially like a float one would see in a parade. However, the processions during Semana Santa are not parades and have a solemn and formal atmosphere. Each cofradía is a very graphic depiction of Christ’s crucifixion or of the Virgin Mary and some are over 600 years old! They are made with detailed wood work and often plated with gold or silver. What I think is the most interesting and impressive part is that they are all carried by man power. Appearing to have 20 some or more men underneath each cofradía teams of men would carry their parish’s specific cofradía for 5 minutes or so (depending on how large/heavy) and then swap to another team of men. I have video clips of the men switching in and out from under these things and the foot work that is choreographed to carefully turn around the narrow street corners was insane. (some of my friends have said they have seen the men practicing the intense footwork outside nearby churches for months now) Saturday’s processions included all 22 of the different “floats” that had been displayed on different days during the week. Apparently this only happens every 100 years, glad I was able to catch it this time around! haha
Today I attended noon mass at Granada's largest Cathedral with friends and then celebrated together over lunch on Plaza Bib Rambla. Today was a beautiful day so we spent some time wondering around the city and eventually decided to go to a movie. Surprisingly Granada didn't shut down today and many restaurants and other places are open! Who would have thought?
Happy Easter! I hope everyone else had a wonderful day!