Holy Week in Zamora

Holy Week in Zamora, Spain, is the annual commemoration of the Passion of Jesus Christ that takes place during the last week of Lent, the week immediately before Easter. Holy Week is the Christian week from Palm Sunday (also called Passion Sunday) through Easter Sunday. It can take place in March or April. In Zamora, Holy Week is celebrated by 16 Catholic religious brotherhoods and fraternities that perform penance processions on the streets of the city.

Holy Week in Zamora was declared in 1986 Fiesta of International Tourist Interest of Spain. This festival is what Zamora is best known for.

Holy Week in Zamora is well known for its soberness, remarkable different from other celebrations, and for being attended for thousands of people, locals and visitors.

The contrast between the daytime and nocturnal processions is marked: silence and meditation are characteristic of those that parade by night and in the early hours, while music and light define the daytime processions.

Thousands of fraternity members take part in the procession in true acts of faith. Traditionally only male members were admitted in most brotherhoods, but in the 21st century, women are entering these associations little by little, not without social debate.

Some of the members of the different brotherhoods walked dressed in their characteristic robes through the streets in penitential robes. Its members wear these penitential robes with conical hats, or "caperuzos" (referred to in other places as 'capirotes'), used to conceal the face of the wearer. These brothers carry processional candles and may walk the city streets barefoot.

The pasos are authentic art works by Spanish artists such as Mariano Benlliure and the local Ramón Álvarez, depicting the most important events in the Passion and Death of Jesus. The pasos are physically carried in the shoulders of the cargadores (known in Andalusia as 'costaleros').

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Wikipedia