Semana Santa in Madrid - Courtesy www.gomadrid.com
Semana Santa, the Spanish name for Easter, occurs usually in the last week of March. It is held in the week leading up to Easter Sunday. Local churches organize ornately decorated floats depicting the Passion of Christ into the city cathedral.
Celebrated with traditional piety all over Spain, Madrid makes for an attractive destination. The festivities in Madrid are among the most elaborate. Starting from Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday series of processions with hooded penitents move about to the piercing wail of the Saeta - love song to the Virgin or Christ. You also see Pasos or heavy floats bearing images of the Virgin or Christ on display.
Traditions regarding Semana Santa date back to the 16th century when the Church decided to present the story of the Passion of Christ in a way that the layperson could understand. Which is why series of processions through the streets depict scenes from the story of the fall and rise again of Jesus Christ.
Madrid sees many processions to mark the occasion. Both Holy Thursday and Good Friday of Holy Week are official holidays. It is typical to see processions from many churches with religious statues carried by local people. Statues depicting various scenes from Christ’s life to the accompaniment of drums and bands are paraded around. .
Madrid has processions all over the city from Thursday to Saturday. The best area to view processions is in and around the Plaza Mayor. Barely 0.9 kilometer from Downtown Madrid you can get here in flat 2 minutes. The strange spectacle of people dressed up in what appears to be Klu-Klux-Klan robes might look macabre! They are only actually people looking for penitence.
Thats the Way to Do Madrid
I still remember that late evening so well. Happily tired and sitting with a mug of coffee I was going through my mail when my eye caught the lines – Would you like to attend this exhibition at the Reina Sofia… and I read on. I stood up and started pacing, my mind racing, my thoughts racier! The Drongo bird was asking me to join her on this trip to Madrid where some digital art exhibit had caught her fancy. The Reina Sofia! My mind was awhirl.The Reina Sofia is not just a museum which displays Picasso, Miro, Tapies, Oteiza, Dali and others but also the foremost art center in Madrid. I was free falling.
Let it Happen! Its in split seconds that certain decisions are made. Even before I had affirmed a very delighted yesssssss to Katrina, doing a Ph D program in ornithology about the foraging habits of the Drongo, I was already visualizing plans of our trip together. We had met in one of the summer arts camps and cyber connectivity had made us real thick. Photography was her forte. The Fine Arts my weakness. And our common passion – travel. She quickly reassured me that all things would be taken care of via Downtown Madrid hotel site and that I had only to pack my bags! Hola Espana – I was on my way!
And so it was that Madrid happened. Decidedly the summer was really great there. Located on the geographic center of the Iberian Peninsula, the high altitude made for the warm dry summer. Our bright and happy energies saw us smoothly exit the busy Madrid Barajas International Airport that’s designed to handle 70 million passengers annually. La Villa or the village, is how the inhabitants of Madrid call their city. And the inhabitants comprise largely of the Spaniards besides the smattering of Latin Americans, North Africans and West Africans. Being a major hub for international business and commerce, Madrid is also a huge finance center in Europe as also the largest in Spain. The capital city of Spain attracts many visitors from around the world!
Yes, truly it is the people and their eccentricities that make a place what it is. Spaniards are Spaniards and there are none like them. Be it the honestly wily cab drivers, the La Picaresca spirit running through or the hotbed of politics – Madrid remains a popular destination and is renowned for its splendorous cultural attractions. It is a city of great monuments and attractive city spots. Among its highlights are the medieval center dating back to the Habsburg Empire and the Prado Museum. The historic center is compact and most monuments are within walking distance of each other. I would seriously not recommend driving around unless you are doing it outside the city. The traffic is incessant and local driving habits frightening to say the least. Public transportation is of course convenient, cheap and easy to use. Both the Metro subway system and the Red Buses turned out to be a good deal.
We were officially here for the Machines and Souls Digital Art and New Media at the Reina SofÃa National Centre for the Arts Museum, and thats how the trip began. The exposition is to be on until October. Outside of New York and Berlin this is the only place you will get to see a photography exhibition in this genre, opined my bespectacled amigo. The exhibition explores the convergence between art, science, and technology, deepening the fact that in the early twenty-first century, art and science run along parallel paths. And it does so through the work of a group of artists chosen for their ability to combine art, technology, mystery, beauty and emotion. All the renowned craftsmen were in there. As for me, I was more than happy to be lost in the works of the Great Masters and their interesting strokes upon lights and shadows and artistic fetishes. All I can say is that it was the most sublime time for me.
That done, there was a whole lot more to do and explore in this ancient city. August is the month of celebration in some of the typical districts here. August 6-15, Virgen de la Paloma festivities for the patron saint have the whole town in a festive mood. The Fiestas de San Lorenzo and San Cayetano celebrations see processions, open air dancing and side walk concerts. Madrid’s bullfighting season begins in March and ends in October and the Las Ventas bull ring is worth a visit even though you may not like the bull fighting. Las Ventas also hosts music concerts and other events when the bullfighting gets over.
Also in July-August the town hall organizes a series of cultural events for the Summer in the Village. This Veranos de la Villa Festival, a fantastic cultural accompaniment to a summer holiday in Madrid offers daily shows like theater, puppetry, film, dance and art, taking place at various indoor and outdoor venues across the city with some performances costing very little or nothing. We checked out some flamenco and jazz and also watched live music in Retiro Park. Although we steered clear of the the traditional bullfights at Plaza de Ventas, but the crowds leading there were amazing to watch. Lot more fun things happen in the coolness of the evening with entertainment moving on to the streets, squares and parks of this magical city.
Madrid is not just a cultural destination. You can simply stroll along to get caught up in the beautiful architecture that dots the city. The lavish Royal Palace, the 16th-century Puerta del Sol (Sun’s Gate) marking the center of Spain, the old Moorish quarter of Moreria and much more. We saw families enjoy boating in Retiro Park and visiting the zoo and the amusement park in Casa de Campo. On our last day we enjoyed paella and tapas and decided to dance until dawn, a must-do here we were told! Having met up with some locals who had befriended us, we had loads of terrazas and decided to make the most of the night. Out last night was eye opening – literally! The lively group saw us making the rounds of many pubs, cafes, discotheques and nightclubs that stay open all through the night. We drove in and out for the fun of it all! And would you believe me we got stuck in a traffic jam at four in the morning! Turning in bleary eyed in the wee hours of the dawn to rake in some sleep before we boarded the flight to go back home, we were pleasantly surprised that nobody thought it odd to turn in so late after our gamboling. Not a night to regret I say. Ole Espaniola! Muchos Gracias!
