As Spain celebrates the Holy Week, one of the most important celebrations in the Christian liturgical calendar, in the south of the country these traditions take a different dimension. The devotion and fervour so palpable in Andalucia, and particularly in Seville, has no comparison with the rest of Spain.

 

Seville is the most famous and the intensity and connection they have with their Virgin and the Christ is very palpable and breath taking. The "cofradías" (religious brotherhoods), walk through the Seville streets to the Cathedral, the precious and heavy (they can weigh over a metric tonne) sculptures, carried  by the "costaleros" (bearers which can be up to fifty four men, all inside the structure of the "paso") on a journey that can take up to fourteen hours on the night of Holy Thursday, until the Holy Friday to venerate their Virgin and the Christ. The way these men carry the images is so distinctive  that it looks like they are alive and the whole procession is floating. "Saeta" singers are along the way, in the balconies, singing out their soul for their Virgin and the solemn Christ, interrupted only  by shouts of "guapa!!!  And tears from the devotes in a heart breaking passion shared amongst all the generations.