Many countries have their own symbolic holidays, what you remember when you hear the name .Semana Santa - this is the soul of Spain, its symbolic religiosity, splendor, and during the pre-Easter Holy Week to get acquainted with this soul come hundreds of thousands of people .These days on the streets of the city there are festive processions, to which the citizens prepare for a year .From the churches take out huge, richly decorated pasos (sculptural compositions on religious subjects), followed by clad in long robes, masks and high pointed caps novices of numerous brotherhoods .

Semana Santa - this is the soul of Spain, its symbolic religiosity, splendor, and during the pre-Easter Holy Week to get acquainted with this soul come hundreds of thousands of people.

Brotherhoods are formed under the banner of the Holy Virgin Mary, whose cult in Spain is much stronger than the cult of Christ. Each brotherhood has its "own", a special Holy Virgin, in her honor and go to the streets of the processions that follow from church to church along with music (in large brotherhoods the procession accompanies up to five orchestras). Believers spend on the streets up to 12 hours. Nazarenos (the so-called people who go after the Pasos) must perpetually repent of their sins, while remaining unrecognized.

The costumes of the brotherhoods are different, the appearance of each of them has evolved over the centuries. In cities such as Seville, Madrid, Toledo, you can see up to 30 different parades in a week.
Semana Santa in Seville, 2011

Local residents and tourists take advantageous places to inspect the processions long before they begin. It will be better to look for a good place in a few days, when there will not be crowds around - the routes of the processions are published in the public domain, and in recent years even special applications for smartphones have been created that help to schedule travel around the city, allowing you to be at the right time in the right place.

The cost of rooms in hotels and real estate for rent during the holiday increases significantly. If you want to visit the holiday, housing issues should be taken care of in advance, reserving your favorite place for a month and a half.

The most interesting happens at the door of the churches, from where the Pasos are born. Kostelaros, the novices of the brotherhood, who are entrusted to carry three-tonal pasos, train for many months to achieve a special gait, in which the figures on the Pasos will appear alive, moving. To make huge platforms from church doors, they have to squat, and each carries up to 120 kg of weight. It remains only to admire their stamina and strong faith!