La cofradía de la Hiniesta

This was our last procession we saw in Seville. We really wanted to see one during the night when all the giant candles are lit and this cofradía passed right next to one of Seville’s iconic and slightly crazy constructions, the Setas. It provided a nice backdrop to the pointy hats, the traditional in front of the modern. It also meant that we didn’t have to stand on a narrow street pushed back to the wall but had ample space to see it up close.

This procession was pretty big with 1500 nazarenos wearing a white tunic and their face was covered by blue silk. And the candles were lit. There was wax everywhere! The first person’s tunic in the middle was covered by wax dropping on him from his two escorts on his sides.

You see, these candles are very long and they have to be held in an angle otherwise all the wax will flow down on the holder’s hands. And then I realised, that’s why they’re wearing gloves! The white-blue nazarenos were an incredible sight when they moved along in front of us in a neat line with their brown giant candles.

We noticed that even though most of them were wearing the traditional sandals, some of them were wearing only socks or walked barefeet!

I remembered my Spanish teachers telling me about the wax balls that children have during the Semana Santa. Every time the procession stopped, children swarmed poor nazarenos asking for either sweeties or wax. They took the ball and let their candle drop on the ball, making it slightly bigger. After a week of procession this ball can grow considerably large. Apparently there are wax balls that have been in use for three generations now and their size can be close to a football’s. Quite impressive!

We also caught a costalero, one of the people who carry the paso itself underneath it. Here in Seville they carry it on their necks, have a look at this guy’s neck, it was rubbed red!

The paso.

La Hiniesta was one of my favourite cofradías.

In the next blog I will show you processions in other parts of Andalusia, too.