The Trip That Keeps Growing: Pictures of Malaga

A note about Brotherhoods and Holy Week in Malaga. (I forgot to put this in my blog on Malaga). Holy Week in Spain is the annual commemoration of the Passion of Jesus Christ celebrated by Catholic religious brotherhoods and fraternities that perform penance processions on the streets of almost every Spanish city during the week before Easter. Brotherhoods have their origins in the Middle Age, but a number of them were created during the Baroque Period and also during the 20th and 21st centuries. The membership is usually open to any Catholic person, and family tradition is an important element to become a member or "brother". A common feature in Spain is the almost general usage of the nazareno or penitential robe for some of the participants in the processions. This garment consists in a tunic, a hood with conical tip (similar to that used by the KKK in the US) used to conceal the face of the wearer, and sometimes a cloak. However, unlike the KKK, most of the brothers joined the brotherhoods in order to obtain a holy place where their mortal remains would rest peacefully. The exact colors and forms of these robes depend on the church which the brotherhood is associated with. Each brotherhood is assigned a specific day during Holy Week for its procession (and if it rains that day, they must wait another year for their parade). The processions consist of members (young and old, male and female) dressed in their penitential robe carrying highly decorative floats with the images (or shrines) from their church of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. There is a fee for those brothers that wish to do penance. These floats are only used once a year; the rest of the year they are stored in a building owned by the brotherhood. The shrines are returned to the church after the procession. One of the storage buildings was located across from the ruins of the Roman theater, and our trip leaders arranged for us to have a private tour of the building to see the floats. Each float weighs about a ton so you can image how many people are needed to carry it. And they were beautiful – decorated in gold and silver.