April 3rd, 2009 – April 12th, 2009 (dates to be determined) The Week of Saints: Valladolid Semana Santa Mar 28, 2009

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Semana Santa (The Passionate, or Saint Week) – is a religious holiday, celebrated throughout all of Spain. In many Spanish towns and cities people conduct religious ceremonies. Member of religious communities (cofradias), dressed in ceremonial clothing carry images of Christ, the Mother of Christ, sculptural groups, and images of scenes from Passions of Christ. One of the places where the celebrations are conducted with special excitement is Valladolid, the administrative center of the province having the same name. Every day, starting with Palm Sunday, the town’s churches conduct ceremonies and in the street, members of various brotherhoods carry out parades joined by many other folk. The processions take place accompanied by sounds of trumpets and drums.

But the real celebration starts on the Passionate Friday. At noon, in the main square preachers start the Sermon of the Seven Words, the so-called “Sermon de las Siete Palabras”. Before that, the members of the brotherhood notify the citizens about this event by reading the address of the Pope in the streets and squares of the city and it is interesting to note that the address is composed as a poem, and the tradition has survived to this day.

After the sermon thousands of people gather downtown all dressed in festive clothing, carrying platforms with sculptural compositions on their shoulders depicting the Last Supper, the Prayer in the Gethsemane Garden, whipping, crucifixion, mourning Mother Mary. Procesion General de la Pasion consists of 31 sculptures, many of which were made during the 16th-17th Centuries. All together they create a real open air exhibition of religious art (on any regular day the sculptures can only be viewed in museum or churches. The celebration ends on Sunday with the procession of the glorious Easter mesa.