That Spanish Culture

So amongst all the traveling I've been doing I have also been able to experience a lot of different Spanish traditions.  I'm really glad that I studied in southern Spain, and especially in Andalusia because they like to keep things old school down here. A lot of the traditions are a big deal here where they wouldn't be as important in other parts of Spain.  The first break we had was for Semana Santa and the second break for Feria de Abril, and I was also able to go to a bullfight!

Semana Santa

Each year in Spain and in a lot of other countries, people celebrate Semana Santa or "Holy Week" the week before Easter.  They do this by having pasos which are basically just giant parades and each church's fraternity takes the Virgin Mary out around the city.  The parades usually last about 4 hours and each one has a slightly different style, but all of them are very decked out.  It's pretty interesting because the pasos draw massive crowds making it next to impossible to get around if a paso is on your route.  Also there are around 50 different processions during the week so you usually find yourself running into them more often then not. Since I was traveling most of the time I only got to see 1 paso but I wormed my way through the crowd and got some pretty cool shots.  Also, I learned a lot about Semana Santa in my culture class, so I knew what was up. 

KKK? Nope, just some Spaniards dressing up in some traditional Semana Santa gear.  The outfit doesn't have any real association with the KKK, but the reason that they cover their faces is because the public isn't supposed to know who they are.  The people walking in the parades are supposed to be doing it for Jesus, like by participating in the parade they are servicing him so it's not for show, just for Jesus hah.  

Here is one of the floats, each paso usually has 3 floats each with scenes of christ in the bible.  The coolest part I think about the whole thing is that these floats are carried by men, if you look you can see their feet under the float.  Sometimes at night you can see men practicing walking with the floats.  Someone dictates what the group should do by knocking on the back of the float, also these floats can be huge, the largest float take 40 men to carry it.  

A lot of pasos also have a live band, so you can always hear a paso coming.  

Some people carry crosses that represent sins that they want to repent, others carry massive candles.  

One interesting thing about Semana Santa that I learned is that a lot of the people don't feel a strong religious connection with the event. They do it more as a way to network within the community, in Spain sometimes it's difficult to get certain services, so having a strong social network can be really helpful when it comes to getting work done on your house or getting a job.  A lot of really religious Spaniards don't like Semana Santa because they feel like it's fake and not really representing what it should be.  

During the whole parade I really enjoyed watching all of the people, everyone is socializing and there are kids running around.  Though I can't understand what anyone is saying, I really enjoy just watching Spaniards interact with one another.  A lot of the kids were collecting wax from the giant candles into wax balls.  They would swarm around the people with the candles and collect wax. 

The float on the left is the one with the Virgin Mary, interesting fact, in southern Spain the Virgin is the more cherished figure in Catholicism while in the North they focus more-so on Saints.  As you can see these floats are extremely done up, apparently its pretty expensive to maintain these things.

Bullfight

So CEA set us up to go to a bullfight!! Since I'd studied bullfight in my class and I wrote a paper about it, I was pretty excited to see one of these spectacles first hand.  Bullfighting has a lot more components to it then people realize, for instance during one fight 6 bulls are killed which I hadn't realized before.  Actually before I came to Spain I didn't even know that they killed the bulls during bullfights.   

The bullring is absolutely gorgeous and during the fight I enjoyed watching this huge Spanish man sitting in front of me eating bags of ham chips, so Spanish.  Also a lot of people were really worried about how they'd handle watching the bull get killed, including Keliana.  When the first bull was killed Kel started to cry and ended up leaving early after the 3rd bull.  

When everyone thinks of a bullfight they picture the Matador doing passes with the bull, but before that even happens the bull is weakened by the assistants.  Above is a picture of a picador, he uses a lance and while on the horse stabs the bull in between the shoulder blades. It's a little scary watching this because the bull often rams into the horse, in the past horses would often be casualties to bullfights, but now they have protective shields to keep them safe. 

Then the banderilleros come in and with two sharp sticks run at the bull on foot and plant the sticks into the bull.  These sticks hand down and stay in the bull for the rest of the fight to help bleed and weaken the bull making the kill easier for the Matador.  

Then the Matador comes out and starts to do passes, as he does them he slowly brings the cape closer and closer to his body.  Part of what makes a good Matador is their grace and skill with controlling the bulls movement while also showing courage and agility.  Bullfighting is considered more of an art than a sport, it's not supposed to be a competition between the bull and the man, it's more of a show.  

As the fight progresses it's easy to see the bulls energy weaken as he loses blood and is forced to run back and forth.  

After the bull is worn out the Matador takes his sword and stabs it right behind the bulls head, if the Matador does it correctly blood pours from the bulls mouth and is killed instantly.  Since we had gone to a more amateur bullfight, 4 out of the 6 Matadors didn't kill the bull properly.  When this happens the Matador tries again or other men come over and stab the bull with a dagger until it dies.  It was kind of hard to watch the men stabbing the bull continuously until the bull died but when the bull was killed properly it was really exciting! Everyone stand up and cheers and you can tell that the Matador himself is really proud.

After the bull is killed it's dragged out of the arena.  

If a Matador kills the bull properly he is awarded one of the bulls ears and if the Matador does an amazing job he can get 2 ears and even a tail.  Another interesting thing about the bullfight was that a lot of the Matadors were fairly young. Overall I thought the bullfight was awesome, I chose to look at it as a cultural practice that I was lucky enough to get to experience.  It was interesting watching the different steps and understanding how much technique and practice really goes into these fights.  Contrary to stereotypes, many Spaniards are extremely against or imparcial to bullfighting. Actually a very small percentage of modern day Spaniards have any interest in bullfighting and in several provinces bullfighting is banned.  Regardless I thought it was extremely interesting and was glad that I got to go! Below you can see a young Matador, ear in hand. 

Feria de Abril

The second week long break I had was for Feria, the fair of April.  We had all heard about Feria since we arrived in Sevilla so I was pretty pumped to check it out.  Basically people set up a bunch of tents called casettas, inside the casettas there is eating, drinking, and dancing!  Most casettas are private and only people who are close with the family or belong to the organization of the casetta get to go in.  There are also several public casettas that anyone can go into and enjoy.  While I was at the fair I went mostly in public casettas but a friend of a friend got me into a private casetta as well.  It was cool to be able to get in, but the only real difference to me was that the private one was a little bit nicer.  I think that Feria would be super fun if you belonged to a private casetta yourself, but as a non-spaniard I couldn't tell the difference.  An article described Feria as "The biggest party that you weren't invited to" which is pretty accurate.  

The gate into Feria, isn't it so pretty!  At night it even lights up. 

The best thing about Feria is the atmosphere, everything is colorful and filled with music and all the Spaniards are in traditional outfits.  Everywhere you turn their are horse and buggies and women in flamenco dresses!

At Feria!

Horses all decked out for the fair

I loved looking at the different dresses because it seems like every single one is unique!  In the United States these dresses would be absolutely ridiculous, but here they are just part of the everyday, at least during Feria.  The women usually wear the dress with matching earrings, flower, and shall.  They are all very flashy. 

The dance that people do during Feria is called Sevillanas, which is a dance you do in pairs that mostly consists of stomps, arm raising, and twirls. Though the women wear flamenco dresses, Sevillanas is technically not flamenco but just another Spanish dance.  I was actually pretty bummed that I didn't know how to do Sevillanas because if I had I would have been on the dance floor the entire time if I had.  Regardless, it was still fun to watch all the Spaniards dancing and having a good time.  These pictures aren't great quality because it was kind of dark in the tents, but you get the idea :)

Everybody dressed and ready for Feria.  Drinking is also a big part of Feria, like most Spanish things, so people spend the day drinking with family and friends.  You can see this women with her pitcher hah. 

We got into a private casetta because my friend Lorena's host sister had a connection.  There she is on the far right, a real Spaniard!!

There was also a huge carnival area with rides and food.  We didn't spend too much time there cause as you can see from this picture, there was a massive storm that day! We got kind of caught in it and didn't get a chance to go on the feris wheel or anything.  

We took refuge from the storm in this random casetta, it was really nice!  They really decorate the casettas well, complete with a bar! 

Feria was full with cute kids dressed up in their Spanish clothes!  People watching in general during Feria was great.  It was just another cool opportunity to really observe the culture and get to know this tradition in Spain.  People from all over Spain travel to Sevilla for their Feria even though a lot of places in Spain have some sort of feria, Sevillas is just very well known and popular.

More people dancing Sevillanas!