Semana Santa

Semana Santa is always a holiday I enjoy--the marches echoing through town, the scent of incense wafting through the air, and of course the ornate and undeniably beautiful pasos that are marched through town with such grace.  But the highlight of this year's Semana Santa was by far the visit we received from my cousin and her family. They weren't here for long, Wed-Fri. but it was wonderful nonetheless. 

This time of year, of course the main attraction are the procesions so I played tour guide and explained as much as I could about the history and traditions of Semana Santa in La Roda.  We have just under 5,000 inhabitants, but there are five procesions total throughout the week here, and our Semana Santa has been declared of "National Touristic Interest".  They had seen some procesions in Seville and Granada before arriving here, but I think there's something special about seeing it in a small town.  You can get much closer to it all than in the city, and of course there was the benefit of having me around to field all the questions from the significace of this or that color to how they carry the pasos.  

Making wax balls

Their son Danny, who is six now, was tons of fun.  He's apparently been begging his parents since they left to promise him they can come back next year for Semana Santa.  And the real reason he's so particular about coming back for Easter is because Thurday night we discovered the secret to keeping a kid entertained as we watch the slow moving pasos march around town--wax balls!  

All Spanish kids do it.  It's part of the Semana Santa tradition: collecting wax from the penitents' candles as they march along.  Every time the procesion stops to let the costaleros  rest, kids come rushing out from the crowds with wax balls of varrying sizes and race to find a penitent willing to drip their candle over the ball.  Kids grow these wax balls from one year to the next.  Danny didn't believe it when we asked one kid with a ball a little bigger than a softball how long he'd been growing his: two years!  

I have always been fascinated by the kids and their wax balls, but it's of course a child's game...I don't think it would be very appropriate for me to scramble out into the procesion vying with the kids for candle wax for my own wax ball souvenir.  So this year with Danny, I had the perfect excuse. :)  He was excited when I asked if he wanted to make a wax ball so we approached a group of girls gathered around other children who were walking in the procesion (children with lit candles...I don't know how there never seem to be any burn injuries year after year...) and asked them how they started their balls. 

My handsome nephew playing in the band

Most kids are thrilled when they can explain how to do something to an adult and so about five girls began talking all at once to give me very specific directions.  We needed a small bit of aluminum foil rolled into a ball to start with.  In the middle of the procesion, of course, there was no foil to be had, but one girl cleverly suggested rolling up a napkin from a nearby bar--perfect!  The first few drops of wax on the paper burned Danny's little fingers and so I was helping him, but when our young teachers saw the mess we were making they remembered to tell us that when you first start you need to put your ball on a stick so you don't burn yourself and cover your hands with wax instead of the ball!  So Danny was slowly growing his wax ball marshmallow-roasting-style!  

The best part of the whole exchange was how excited the kids were that he was from America.  One little boy who is probably about four, maybe five, was following him around and just staring.  I'm sure he didn't know what America was when his older brother called him over, pointed to Danny and said, "He's from America".  For all he probably knew Danny was from Mars, and that's certainly how he was looking at him for about 10 or even 15 minutes!  It was adorable.  

The older kids were a little shy at first and completely disbelieving that he actually spoke English.  For them, English is something you study at school and a language that only adults speak.  They've never seen a kid their age speaking English, so they were totally blown away when I was talking to him and he seemed to understand everything.  One little girl looked at me skpetically and asked, "Is he getting all that? Because I can't understand a word!" :)  

Keeping the candles lit for the Virgen de Esperanza

But as the march through town went on, they began to get braver.  I taught them to say "wax" in English and so they were asking, "Do you (want) wax, Danny?", and when they saw that he understood and answered they were encouraged to search for more things to say.  One little girl proudly popped out with, "Do you like cheese?" and Danny was completely confused as to where the question had come from.  We adults all nearly peed our pants listening to the exchange.  All the little girls were doing their best to flirt and asked me more than once how to say, "You're handsome" in English!  They were practically fighting with each other to give Danny wax; and he was in heaven having people his own age to interact with.

This year the weather cooperated fully, too.  Only today is it rainy and cold.  There are very few procesions on Easter Sunday, anyway so nearly all of Andalusia is happy this year because all of the procesions were able to go out.  Good Friday was even a little too hot.  I felt sorry for the penitent with their hoods and even more sorry for the costaleros carrying those tremendous pasos through the streets, but the sun did make for some beautiful pictures and very good business at the bar. ;)

Happy Easter all.