I wanted to share some pictures of an amazing Holy Week festival that I went to with Sarah and Oscar and Oscar's family. Oscar's father, who now lives in Barcelona is originally from the small town of Calanda in Aragon. Every year for three days of Easter week, thousands of people converge on Calanda to dress in purple satin robes and headdresses and play drums. Oscar's family has the robes and the drums, so we all got to take part. The sound was deafening, but exciting on a truly visceral level. Here are some pictures:
At the "Breaking of the Hour" thousands of people cram themselves into the main plaza of the town with the purple outfits on (hats are not required for this part). They all become silent about five minutes before noon, then, on a signal, they all start drumming at once and play for about an hour.
There are two kinds of drums being played. One is what we would call a snare drum, which they call a tambor:
The other is a bass drum, which they call a bombo:
At the end of the hour, all the players process out of the plaza while continuing to play
There are also three processions scheduled that anyone with the purple costume and the right kind of drums can join in. They march throughout the town in three lines - the outside two lines are tambor players and the center line is made up of bombo players.
I marched and drummed in one of those along with Sarah and Oscar's father and sister.
On Friday night there was a religious procession right out of the middle ages -
robes and hoods were ubiquitous
Penitents covered in black marched dragging chains. Some of these were barefoot, as well
Beautiful young women in medieval costumes represented various stories from the Bible
Young men dressed as Roman soldiers marched in formation with grim expressions on their faces.
Statues of Jesus and Mary illustrating various parts of the whole passion story were decorated with flowers and carried on the shoulders of marchers
Hooded marchers played drums
or other rhythm instruments
Children marched in costume with their parents.
As it grew darker and the marchers' torches lit the streets, there was an eerie feeling of being in another time when ritual and superstition ruled.
This was a contrast to the general party atmosphere that reigned when the open processions and sessions were going on.
There were two more general drumming sessions in the plaza. One started at 11pm Friday and went all night with people joining and leaving randomly. Different groups played different rhythms and they competed, merged, changed and riffed on each other. Kind of a community jam session. The other was the closing session in the middle of the day on Saturday after which no one was supposed to drum any more. Here is a picture of Oscar's family after the final session (L to R: Sarah, Oscar, Oscar's sister, Oscar's uncle and mother, Oscar's father and his brother).
The whole thing was a unique experience for me. The sound of all those drums made every stone in the plaza tremble. My ears rang for days. I can't really describe the emotions all that drumming stir up. I am truly grateful to Oscar's family for sharing this with me.
3 comments:
great photos linda! your niece really looks like you! :)
evangeline
Too much! You described those costumes to me, but seeing the pictures makes it that much weirder. What's the story behind the drumming?
I am not 100% sure of the story behind the drumming. I read in some of the literature the town puts out that it was supposed to represent the way the earth trembled when Jesus died on the cross. But I don't know how it got started, or even if that is really what it is meant to evoke. I should have asked more people when I was there, but the language barrier was so frustrating it damped my curiosity somewhat.
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