Easter

Usha mentioned in the Archers the other day that Alan, the Ambridge vicar, was very busy at Easter. If it's hectic in Borsetshire then it's positively frenetic in Spain with religious processions and events everywhere at Easter time.

We have good Easter processions in Pinoso. There are, I think, eight different groupings five of them with the tall conical hats (the ones the Klu Klux Klan thought scary enough to copy) a Roman Legion and a group of women dressed in black and wearing mantillas. I went out to see a couple of the processions but this year I missed the one that I think is most impressive on Maunday Thursday/Good Friday

The reason I missed it was that I was in Cartagena to see the equivalent procession there. I have to say that the Cartagena processions were incredible. Thousands and thousands of penitents, as many different costumes as anyone could imagine with attention to detail in every facet from perfectly straight marching lines and co-ordinated movements down to matching shoe buckles. Something of the military nature of the town was obvious from the escorts of serving soldiers and sailors marching goose step style in front of and behind the members of the various brotherhoods and their extravagant floats carried on the backs of hundreds of perfectly co-ordinated portapasos (float carriers).

It's not just the event itself either. Last night we had to move from our chosen position because of a mix up over chair reservations. By then it was impossible to get back to the front of the crowd so we wandered the streets. The bars and the streets were full of costumes and small elements of the procession being readied. Tuning instruments, polishing shoes, having that last fag, marshalling the people and sorting out those final details at every glance.

Splendid.
.