IF YOU'VE lived in Spain since at least the beginning of 2019, you'll probably have seen an Easter week parade before; hopefully, if you're a regular visitor to Spain, you'll have managed to plan at least one trip here in time to see the Good Friday marches. And if neither is the case, it's about time you did – although any attempt to do so last year or this would have been frustrated as all processions have been called off for the second Easter running as a precaution against Covid contagion.
So here's to Easter 2022 and normality returning.
Actually, it is getting that way in many parts of Spain. Some regions where even the smallest of villages had dozens, or in fact, hundreds, of cases each at the beginning of the year are now practically Covid-free, with only a handful of towns reporting numbers in single figures. One of these is the Mediterranean region of the Comunidad Valenciana, where the vast majority of its 500-plus towns and villages are now reporting no cases at all, and a smattering of bigger towns only reporting between one and 15 at the most. The idea of each region's borders being shut, bar opening times restricted, and a curfew of anywhere from 22.00 to midnight imposed, is to stop this excellent progress being ruined by everyone, understandably, wanting to let rip over the long holiday weekend. But we're now starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, and the day will soon come when 'confinement' is an old-fashioned word for childbirth, 'mask' is about fancy dress or a substance you spread on your hair and face to give you silky locks and smooth skin, and 'social distancing' means taking a break from Facebook.
Anyway – if you're already champing at the bit to watch a Good Friday parade in Spain – or watch another one if, like the rest of us, you feel you've forgotten what they look like – now might be a good time to learn a bit more about them so you're clued up and get the best out of it when you're finally seated by the roadside listening to the haunting, rhythmic drum-beats.
The main parade, and in most towns, the only one of two, at Easter is on Good Friday and, unlike most Spanish fiestas where the actual saint or religious occasion they are based on takes a back seat or never features at all except in the name on the events programme, Easter is pretty much 99% linked to the original crucifixion story.
But if you're an atheist, believe in 'something' but don't follow any religion, or your religion is not one of the forms of Christianity, this doesn't mean you should feel left out or that none of it applies to you: The biblical legend involves a series of morals and metaphors, and as a story it's replete with tragedy and joy, and the parades that re-enact it are highly emotional, whatever your faith, or even if you have none at all.
To find out more, about how Spain celebrates in a non-Covid year, and the background to the story if you've never read the Christian bible, take a look at our article here (it's got Antonio Banderas in it, too. Read it through and find out why).
Food is at least as important at Easter in Spain as it is at any other time of the year, especially monas de Pascua (cakes covered in hundreds-and-thousands, with an optional chocolate coating) on the Mediterranean and torrijas (sweet, milky, eggy 'French' toast covered in icing sugar) in Madrid and many inland locations. If you want to mark Easter somehow and feel the loss of the parades has just turned it into four days off work with little to show for it, why not get cooking? Last year, during lockdown, some of the top chefs based in Valencia shared their 'secret' Easter recipes with us. They're not so secret now, and thanks to us at thinkSPAIN, they're also out there in English. Supermarkets are mostly open tomorrow (Saturday) if you're short of any of the ingredients.
You mentioned pointy hats...
Anyway, yes, sorry. About those pointy hats. The ones you think look like the ones worn by the Ku Klux Klan. Well, they're not. We hope you've read this before you asked a Spanish person, “why do your Easter parade hats look like the ones worn by the Ku Klux Klan?” Because we can guarantee that, in under three seconds after posing the question, you'll be feeling very, very embarrassed.
What do they symbolise in modern-day Good Friday parades? The long, thin hats are attached to a full veil covering the entire face except for eye-holes, and the rest of the body is covered in a floor-length, plain gown, giving the impression of a colourful cartoon ghost but with a narrow triangular-shaped head. Sometimes the hood and gown are in different colours, but the entire troop, or 'brotherhood', wears the same shade and design.
The face is covered because Good Friday parades are all about penitence. Paraders are repenting of their sins and punishing themselves for them (you might see followers in bare feet, or symbolically thrashing themselves with birch twigs) since this is the reason Jesus died on the cross: To save us from those sins. And the idea is that the brotherhoods in the procession are ashamed of their unclean souls and misdeeds, so they hide their faces from the public.
Hat height is also important. No, their heads don't go all the way to the top; the idea here is that the taller the point, the closer it is to heaven, the nearer the wearer is to God, the greater the contact, meaning the greater the respect and the more chance they and their sins will come to the Lord's notice so they can be forgiven.
They're known as a capirote, or sometimes as a capuz or capuchón, variations on capucha, or 'hood' (that's where the Capuchin monks get their names from). And the colours they come in are no accident.
Red, as you may have guessed, is the colour of the blood of Christ, or of passion, as in the Passion of Christ; black is the colour of mourning, for the death of Christ on the cross; white is for purity, purple is for penitence, green is for hope or a symbol of new life about to emerge (Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday).
Each brotherhood, or hermandad, sometimes known as a cofrade, being a club, community or collective, bears a different name based upon 'themes' from the crucifixion and it is normally these themes which dictate the colour they wear.
It is thought they were originally black, and the first ones were used in Sevilla, still famous even today for some of the most spectacular Good Friday parades in Spain – although nearly every town and village, however small, normally has one. Some historical documents appear to show that the capirote became part of the procession costume back in the 17th century, although it is thought they may even have been used as early as the year 1400.
They are believed to have been first worn, albeit not necessarily for fiesta parades, during the time of the Inquisition, in the late Middle Ages – a terrifying State-led organisation which, whilst typically known for its horrific ethnic cleansing and expulsion of the Moors, or Arab-origin inhabitants, or their forcible conversion from Islam to Christianity to avoid being deported from a country they had lived in for over 700 years, was in fact feared by almost everyone. Being Jewish meant you were automatically a target, and would be tortured, persecuted, killed or thrown out of Spain. But even if you were a practising Catholic, you weren't necessarily safe: The subtlest sign that you were acting in a way that could be considered blasphemy, or against the Church, which could even involve claiming to have been spoken to by God and not being believed, or missing mass, eating before Communion, or eating during Lent, for example, could lead to your being imprisoned, tortured or worse. An accusation by a third party might be enough, even if you were not guilty; it was not a time to make enemies of anyone.
And those jailed by the Inquisition, many of whom ended up burned publicly at the stake or otherwise executed, would be made to wear a hat and mask similar to the capirotes worn in today's Good Friday marches – a visible sign that they had sinned, to ensure the rest of society was aware and knew what would happen to them if they followed suit.
References to capirotes worn by 'offenders' during the time of the Inquisition have also been found across southern France, as well as Spain, but as a symbol of Easter, are not widespread across the Mediterranean. In Malta, for example, Easter processions involve people dressed as Roman soldiers.
Redress for the hideous human rights abuses perpetrated during the Inquisition would be long overdue and, some would argue, remains unfinished business; one welcome move, however, in recent years, was that of granting automatic Spanish nationality to direct descendants of all Sephardic Jews expelled from the country in the 15th century – and their entitlement to citizenship of Spain is compatible with, and does not affect, their existing nationality.
Easter Sunday is a bit more cheerful, though
If all of this is enough to make you feel guilty, rest assured that by Easter Sunday, Christ's resurrection will mark the successful cleansing of your sins and you can show your face again in public. Traditionally, the Reencuentro, or 'reunion', sees statues of Jesus and Mary being brought together in a public Plaza, mother meeting son again after he rises from the dead, joyful music is played, doves of peace released, and sweets or flower petals flung into the crowds. At this point, the brotherhoods (made up of women as well as men – hermandad is a gender-neutral noun, so could also translate as 'sisterhoods') fold down their hats and peel back their masks, as they need no longer feel ashamed.
But if you're out this Easter Sunday, or indeed, any day of the year, make sure you wear a mask anyway – a surgical one covering the lower part of your face and fitted snugly. It's the law in Spain at the moment for masks to be worn anywhere outside the home, whether or not you're able to keep a distance from others, to protect yourself and the rest of society.
Unlike the Easter face-coverings, wearing a mask at the moment in Spain is not a sign of shame or of being a sinner – the opposite, in fact, is true and it's a shame and a sin to be without one. You can also be fined very heavily – a minimum of €100.
Whether or not masks have to be worn on the beach or at the pool is not yet clear. The central government made it compulsory ahead of Easter, but at least five regions have opted to defy the new ruling as they consider it impractical and 'over the top', and several leading epidemiologists have said there is 'no need'. This could lead to an imminent reversal in the decision, but it's best to wear yours unless and until this is confirmed.
Meanwhile, to help you celebrate Good Friday, if you can't watch a 'real life' parade, you could watch them online instead, or find some Easter procession march music. These have always been televised, so there's plenty of footage of earlier ones that will allow you to soak up the atmosphere and drink in the true feeling of this key season in Spain's fiesta calendar.
Here's a description of some of the best televised Good Friday parades, where to find them, and the marching music you can look for to keep the sensation alive all weekend.
A HOLLYWOOD legend joining folk-dancers from Asturias and showing off her fancy footwork in the street is not a scene your average Oviedo resident witnesses during his or her weekly shop. Even though their northern...
WHEN the summer reaches its hottest weeks, the idea of cooler climates suddenly becomes more attractive. And although Spain generally cannot offer temperatures similar to northern Scandinavia, not everywhere in the...
THIS year's Princess of Asturias Arts Award winner has already been announced after her name was put forward by Spain's most famous living film director.
