SEMANA SANTA: Sábado de Pasión en Murcia

Saturday, 28 March, 2015:

Not to worry, we'll explain

him later in this blogpost

We awoke to a beautiful, warm morning which meant only one thing to Laurie . . . SHOPPING!

Although the day actually started more in my area of expertise at . . . 

The local outdoor churreria

 Fresh made . . .

Deep fried churro in healthy oil

Flipped with care

Patted to a golden brown richness

A little sugar that instantly caramelized

on contact and we were good to go

 Fiestas all of the next two weeks

Good magazine

As we neared the center of the Old City, we heard a band playing and were instantly drawn to . . .

A parade on a coffee break

All was good with the Greens,

a café and music is always a good thing

The Green's Band in action

 That painting is new

 Red Penitent Statues

And then real Red Penitents

  

Red Penitents in action

Randomly seeing groups like the Greens and the Reds in the streets will be very common during the next week.

 My birth year's

Semana Santa poster

The Spring Festival starts right

after Easter Sunday

 Laurie's birth year

Semana Santa poster

 I liked this one

Another parade was

scheduled for Noon

It would start at the Iglesia de San Miguel where there we found . . .

 Mysterious Ladies,

Bands,

And an Officer

Parade Sticks

These are used to help prop up the huge Paso and take the pressure off of the bearers shoulders each time the translado stops.

The translado is about to start

Here they come! 

La Virgen de los Dolores

 Be STRONG, it's a LONG, SLOW walk

Since this is classified as a Traslado, formal dress is all that is required, not the full Penitent outfits that we will see later tonight during a much more ornate Procesión.

Priests 

The inside of Iglesia San Miguel

Chocolate and Monas after the Mass?

Count me in!

Laurie loved the flowers,

so I took a photo

As for me,

I love gargoyles

The Cross made famous by

Caravaca de la Cruz

 Ready to be paraded through the streets

La Virgen de los Dolores will sit

atop this when the parade arrives

The Pontificia, Real, Hospitalaria y Primitiva Asocición del Santísimo Cristo de la Salud

LOTS of torches

A chance meeting with
Señor Antonio Valverde

Not only a member of the Pontificia, Real, Hospitalaria y Primitiva Asocición del Santísimo Cristo de la Salud, he is a great football referee here in the South of Spain. 

Did I mention that it was warm today?

That's about 92 degrees Fahrenheit!

Should we be worried?

Our menagerie keeps growing

After a 90 minute break back at La Hacienda, we walked back to the old part of la ciudad to see more Semana Santa action and hopefully a Penitent or two.

Iglesia Santa Catalina

A Red in costume

The Reds have a good all-around look

I had misread the program and we had arrived  at the church way too soon for the procession's start so we roamed.

Palm Sunday Artwork

Universal Fiesta Junk Food

A wedding at the Cathedral

Cathedral Bell Concert

Confradía del Santísimo Cristo de la Fe

was on the march in a Procesión

They are the Browns

Nice flame

Toting the Virgen through the ciudad

They take it slow with lots of stops

Nice crucifix

Ornate lamp

It's all about the Resurrection

The Browns had a band

The Browns' Band in action

Yet another group during a Traslado!

Señor AntonioValverde

aiding in a Traslado

He was hard at work toting this Virgen with his friends.

We may have one tired referee at the game tomorrow morning.

Lots of pageantry in Murcia today and it will continue all the way to Easter Sunday!

The Spanish culture is fascinating to say the least.