FESTIVAL

Holy Week (The passion of Christ )

The Province Celebrates Easter with a Variety of Unique Celebrations

There are luxurious, austere, dramatic, curious and with-old-brother-rivalries street processions. The passion of Christ has been transformed into a fervently faith’s celebration as well as a spectacle typical of the best choreographies without forgetting the mystic ambience: processional music, silence, and burnt wax, incense and cut-flower scent.

Easter commemorates the death of Christ and celebrates his Resurrection, a commemoration of the triumph of life over death. The ceremony is observed in every corner of the province of Cádiz, but every city, town and village has its own Easter celebration, which this year will be from the 1st to the 8th of April.

In such a historical province –with nearly 150 brotherhoods-, Easter has shaped all important events, from the late Christian conquest of Al-Andalus to the flight from Gibraltar, going along the militarization of San Fernando, where sailors transferred their organising system to the processions. Thus, not all processions are seen by observing one.

From the XVI century, this religious celebration has generated marvellous statues, beautiful pieces of embroidery, processional music, masterpieces of religious art made of gold and silver, and fine fabrics.

But perhaps the most particular feature of Easter is the special and skilful way of carrying the “throne”, which is carried on the shoulders and backs of devout volunteers –known as “costaleros”-, who will bear the weight of the float and their sculptured representations of a Biblical scene with solemnity and grace.

This act is already part of the most wonderful cultural heritages of the province.
The historian, Ana Gómez Díaz-Franzón, in the volume, Easter as Andalusian Cultural Heritage, has published “Easter in Cádiz”, a wonderful account of its origins, its development and present celebrations in time and space.

From 1488

In all Andalusia, Easter is characterised by a succession of processions held by the different brotherhoods from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Some of them are hundreds of years old as the “Mayor Dolor” (“the Biggest Pain”) in Jerez, founded by shoemakers and tanners in 1488, or the Veracruz in Cádiz, which dates back to 1566, and others as multitudinous as La Palma in Cádiz with more than 3,000 brothers.

Easter’s Singularities

Each procession represents a unique and different set on scene due to the solemnity of the carried float, people’s deep devotion and spontaneous saetas, sacred wailing songs similar to flamenco that sound out in the middle of the silence through the processions.

The “Nazareno” (in reference to Nazareth, Christ’s place of birth) in Cádiz on Thursday in the evening and the “Buena Muerte” (“Good Death”) on Good Friday in the evening are a must; and the “Prendimiento” (“the Capture”) and the “Amargura” (“the Bitterness) in Jerez.

Ana Gómez highlights that in Arcos, “the armaos (“the armed”), Roman squads that first went with Christ tied to the column in the XVIII century, are fascinating.” In her opinion, it is also worth mentioning the image of the child Jesus, which was brought from Rome in 1764 and which features in an allegoric and premonitory way his death on the cross on Friday evening and his Resurrection, glorified, on Sunday morning.

She states that some brotherhoods have chosen to recover Easter’s primitive austerity, such as the “Nazareno” in Chiclana or the “Salud, Amor y Sacrificio” (“Health, Love and Sacrifice”) in Jerez, where the “nazarenos” do not carry a mask but the ancient hood. It is a return to Easter origins, which turned Baroque in the XVIII century, when the floats, protagonists of the parades, were multiplied.

Besides, she adds that it is very typical in Sánlucar de Barrameda to carry the floats “al cincho” (“tied to a belt”) and to use the “chasca”, a wooden instrument similar to the castanet to begin and stop the processional marching of the floats.

All tourist offices in big towns and cities have routes and timetables of the processions that simultaneously march through the old part of their corresponding municipalities.

Of Tourist interest

Many processions are considered of national tourist interest, as the ones in Jerez or Arcos de la Frontera, whose floats do almost not fit in their narrow and steep streets. The Junta de Andalucía considers Easter in 20 Gaditan villages of tourist interest. Among them, it is remarkable Easter Sunday in Alcalá del Valle, characterized by a parade of “hornazos” (a dessert made of eggs, flour, almonds, cinnamon, oil and sesame seeds) and “La Carreterita de San Juan” (“San Juan’s small road”), in which the Saint quickly goes along the village streets until he finds the Virgin to inform her of her son’s resurrection.

In Torre Alhámique, women carry San Juan along the city until he meets the virgin. Once they have met, the icons dance to the processional music’s solemn rhythm and public’s applause.

Gómez highlights as well “La Borriquita viviente” (“the Living little Donkey”) in Alcalá de los Gazules, where 80 children dressed as Hebrews march on Palm Sunday. She also reminds us that in villages such as Vejer de la Frontera, there is still the tradition of offering the “Nazarenos” “roscos” (ring-shaped cakes o bread rolls) and “pan duro” (bread slices with almonds and spices), once the procession is finished. A further uniqueness, as Ana Gómez points out, is the existence of articulated images, as the “Nazarenos” in Conil and Arcos.

Besides, the rivalry between two brotherhoods -“la Santa Vera Cruz” (known as the whites) and “Nuestro Padre Jesús” (known as the blacks) is deeply rooted in Setenil de las Bodegas. The brotherhoods’ separation took place at the end of 1700 “but the brotherhoods continue doing their best to make their respective processions look exuberant and splendorous.”

The theatre performance of the Passion of Christ and the procession’s exit from the church are to be remarked in San José del Valle. Finally, the procession of the Passion of Christ on Good Friday in the evening has 7 picturesque floats along its itinerary in Benaocaz.

Gibraltar area

Religious celebrations began on the western part of the province of Cádiz in the XIII century, but the Christian Conquest did not finish in the Gibraltar area until the XVI century. Thus, Easter in this area was established later. A further singularity is that brotherhoods’ goods were not incorporated to San Roque’s Easter until 1270.

The Magna Procession of this town on Easter Friday is one of the major tourist interests of the province. It is also characteristic the procession of “el Encuentro del Jueves Santo” (“the Easter Thursday Meeting”) in San Roque, where the “Virgen de los Dolores” and “Jesús Nazareno” follow a different route until they meet at the Andalusia Square at 11 p.m., while the priest recites the excerpt of the Holy Meeting between Jesus and his mother from a balcony.

“In Tarifa, the Nazareno float meeting on Easter Thursday is popular as well. The old custom of public speeches is still preserved”, as the historian points out.

Judas and bulls, evil symbols

Easter Sunday constitutes a very special day in the province –Ana highlights-, especially in the mountains outside Cádiz and in La Janda, where, in addition to Resurrection processions, “several popular festive celebrations take place, such as the bull’s festivity or the burning of Judas in Conil and Benamahoma, where Judas’s image is placed in front of a bull which will destroy the image. In Bornos, this celebration is prolonged with concerts and the traditional “lucky Bucaro”, where each sip of liquor is accompanied of a wish.” Ana Gómez explains that both Judas and the Bull represent Evil but whereas the former is killed the latter is run away.

On Easter Sunday a bull with padded horns is released through the streets in Los Barrios and in Vejer, and the bull of “Alleluia” in Paterna and in Arcos de la Frontera, where the bravest people dare to run in front of two bulls and the quietest ones enjoy the celebration from their balconies and terraces.
These and many other singularities are found in the vast research work that this historian from Sanlúcar has developed about Easter in Cádiz.

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