SPANISH SPRING

Easter is a very important celebration in Spain. The whole of Holy Week is usually a holiday for most Spaniards.
Given that Spain has a very strong religious past, catholic rituals are often held during Easter, for example on As Wednesday people go to church and have a cross made of ash on their foreheads as a way of saying sorry to God.
On Palm Sunday there is a big mass where children hold big palm leaves and branches which are blessed by holy water spred by the priest.
Many regions of Spain celebrate Easter with big parades or processions through the street, specially in the South. There are big and elaborated constuctions called "tronos" with statues telling the story of the death, passion and resurrection of Jesus. This structures are carried on the shoulders of tens of men and women who feel extremely proud of taking part on this processions. This can be quite a hard work because they are quite heavy and sometimes they have to carry them for more than 4 hours. This processions are normally accompanied by drums, trumpets and other instruments, there are also some people who sing special songs "a capella" to the religious statues, these songs are called "saetas".


This is the most important festival in our city Lorca and people spend the whole year getting ready for it and arranging all the things needed which are quite a lot! The last day of school before Easter Holidays we hold a mini-parade in our school commemorating the big one that takes place on the street!