Semana Santa

This week went by really quickly! I am finally on spring break! Friday marked the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy Week) and I have been going out every night to the processions. The processions are held every night (sometimes there are more than one) and each procession is held by a group of Nazarenes from the Murcia region. Millions of people gather around to watch the processions and the Nazarenes give out candy to the kids who are watching as they pass. Each procession has its own color, and the Nazarenes carry statues representing their group. The statues weigh about 2 tons and are carried by 34 men. They wear costumes that are very interesting for those of us who grew up in the US. The first procession began in the year 1411. Here are pictures:

The cathedral at night before the first procession.

One of the groups of men playing instruments on Sunday.

One of the processions on Saturday, there were two this day, one was Brown and one was Red.

Statues from the processions, they are beautiful!

I will be going to three more days of processions (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) before I head to Barcelona for 5 days of dancing! After that its two days in Granada, and then home before Isaac comes. I can't wait! Hopefully this break will be just as much fun as I am expecting. As always, there are more pictures to be found on facebook.

In other news- On Friday I went to the beach to celebrate my friend Kellian's birthday. The weather seems to finally be cheering up and we had a great time playing frisbee, eating, and getting some sun. Yesterday my roomate Lara and I went shopping and spent the afternoon together before we went to the processions. Today she left to meet her family in Madrid so they can travel for a week. I spent the day spring cleaning the apartment in an attempt to get rid of all the dust! One thing I am learning about city living is that it is an incredibly dusty existance, I'm not a fan. The next few days I plan to get some work done, walk around as much of the city as possible, and get everything ready for my trip. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks. Adventures will be had!