Life in Culebrón: Some quick, possibly wrong, information about the Pinoso Easter celebrations

Easter Week, Semana Santa, is huge in Spain. After all Easter is at the very heart of the Christianity and lots of Spanish events are still tied in to the Roman Catholic calendar.

Easter Sunday is the culmination of Holy Week when, so the story goes, Jesus Christ rose or was resurrected, from the dead. On Good Friday Jesus was executed by crucifixion and he was put in a guarded tomb. When some of his women followers visited the tomb on Sunday they found the tomb empty. It is an article of faith with Christians that Jesus rose from the dead.

Between Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowd, through to his crucifixion on Friday and his resurrection on Sunday there are lots of other Easter scenes: the trial by Pontius Pilate, Peter, Jesus's follower, denying - three times - that he knew Jesus before the dawn cockerel crowed, Jesus's walk up to Golgotha or Calvary carrying his own cross and the help he received along the way, the crucifixion scene itself with three crosses, Jesus in the middle, his cross inscribed with INRI, flanked on each side by a common thief. The Roman soldier wounding Jesus with his spear. All of these events, and others, are represented in the various statues that are carried, or rolled, on tronos, pasos or floats, through the streets of Spain during Holy Week or Semana Santa.

Easter is celebrated lavishly in Pinoso. With a bit of luck the programme is here I failed to find the official programme on a website so, if you're interested, you'll have to download the pdf from my saved Facebook page.

The various groups, or cofradías, that take part wear different outfits, (the hood or capirote/capuchón, the túnicas or robes, the capas or capes and emblemas for emblems), take care of various statues, (pasos, tronos or imágenes) which are given outings in relation to the part of the Easter story they depict. Generally the participants have covered faces to show that they are penitent and to ensure that everyone has the same status. The participants are often called Nazarenos which is obviously from some reference to Nazareth, Jesus's home town,

There are lots and lots of other traditions, religious rites, masses and church events associated with Holy Week and I don't know enough about it to write anything more detailed. However, I did think that you may be interested, if you live in Pinoso, to know who is who so that, with a bit of detective work, you can work out who will be out for each of the processions.

Sorry about the gaps between the pictures. I don't seem to be able to get blogger photos under control!

Hermandad de San Pedro Apóstol

Brotherhood of Saint Peter the Apostle

Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno

Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus of Nazareth

Hermandad de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores

Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows - it looks like a Sisterhood to me but there you go.

Centuria Romana

Roman Centuria

Cofradía del Santísimo Cristo de la Buena Muerte, Santo Sepulcro y Santa Mujer Verónica

Confraternity of the Holy Christ of the Good Death, Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Veronica - Veronica was the woman who gave Jesus a handkerchief to wipe his brow on the way up to Golgotha. The cloth was left with an imprint of his face. In fact, if you want to see the very cloth (!) then it will be on display in the Santa Faz celebrations in Alicante, this year on 28 April.