Festivals and processions, Spanish style

Judy. As you can probably tell from previous posts about Carnaval and Semana Santa, the Spanish people seem to love their festivals and their processions. On this visit, I experienced two more: Fallas, in Valencia, and Jesús ante Anás in El Palo.

Well, I didn't actually experience Fallas; I was there a few days late, but my good friend Emma made sure I learned as much as I could.

With Emma in the beautiful city of Valencia

Emma was my neighbor when we lived in Atlanta. Born in Puerto Rico, she often traveled to Spain, mostly to Catalonia, to do family research. About a year ago, she decided to move to Valencia, and after much paperwork and much downsizing, she arrived, and, typical of Emma, jumped right in, joining groups and reading up on her new city. While we were in Málaga, she invited me over for the weekend.

I had just missed Fallas, a celebration of St. Joseph's Day (which is also Father's Day in Spain, as he's the patron saint of dads), and occurs from 15-19 March, with fireworks all around those dates. This is one of UNESCO's "intangible cultural heritages," and looks to be incredible. The whole city parties in native clothing. Each neighborhood spends the year raising money and building a float or falla, which is topped with ninots, or human carved figures in some sort of satirical jab based on a theme. These fallas are toured through the city and taken to a huge representation of the Virgin  (Our Lady of the Forsaken), covered in flowers. Then all but one are burned (fallas means "torches"). The ninots from the one saved are then placed in the Fallas Museum. And that's what I got to see, along with the Virgin minus her flowers. But these guys were well worth the museum visit!

Virgin Mary in the Main Square, minus her flowers

One of the posters now in the museum

In some of these, it's easier to see what's being said: the sweeping away of knowledge, balancing through life under Franco, a hungry grandmother holding her hungry grandchild. Others seem to celebrate a simpler time.

Back in El Palo (a suburb of Málaga), I'd seen posters for Jesús Ante Anás to be held March 29, but assumed it was to be in the little church there. That evening, though, we heard a band and immediately recognized it as a procession, so we dashed down the street in time to catch the solemn parade of the trono of Jesus before Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest Caiaphas, the first step in Jesus's movement to the cross. 

As you can see, it has many of the elements of the Semana Santa processions, on a much smaller scale. Still, the Hermanidad gave it every bit as much importance in this little village/suburb, and the citizens turned out in droves to see the men and women carry that trono up the steep hill. In some of the photos you can see the pain on their faces.

It's these surprising cultural events that really round out our time in other countries. Sometimes it's a surprise, and sometimes it's planned, but it always gives us a better understanding of another way of life.