|Locatio: Sevilla, Spain|
Dave and I have traveled pretty extensively around Europe but I can honestly say I actually felt culture shock in Sevilla (that fact alone shocked me!)! We happened to visit during Corpus Christi week, and it seemed the city was always on with celebrations, parades, and excitement.
Every evening the week leading up to Corpus Christi on Thursday, multiple bands would play throughout the narrow city streets and the music echoed off the buildings making for some loud music. This city celebrated with passion! The streets were filled with people everywhere and we had fun exploring!
The city was decked out with fresh flowers, decorated bannisters, outdoor cathedrals, alter pieces, and fresh rosemary everywhere (mostly on the street floors).
A lot of the building decorations in red and gold read ‘NO8DO’, which stands for No me ha dejado, or ‘has not abandoned me’ referring to the city Sevilla. It’s become Sevilla’s motto, explaining the city will never abandon you. <3
On the day of Corpus Christi, the city held a huge procession lasting at least five hours, starting at 08:00 and lasting until about 13:00!. All of the streets were covered in rosemary so it smelled wonderful. I can’t even imagine what la Semana Santa is like, because the whole week long celebration for Corpus Christi was very intense to me!
I mentioned before that our apartment was right in the mix of things, but it happened to be right on the parade route and we had a hard time getting out of our street as it was literally filled with people everywhere, dressed in their Sunday best! We got out at about 09:30 and were happily forced to enjoy the processional and take in the celebration as we couldn’t go anywhere until mid afternoon.
The parade route went from square to square and eventually led to the Cathedral de Sevilla. There were men holding large Roman candles, people carrying more alter shrines, military men, and more. The whole city was out to participate.
All of the store vendors decorated their windows or walls with alters for Christ.
Eventually the processional finished and they opened the cathedral to visitors, so we went inside. As you can imagine, the cathedral was massive.
Some of the alters from the procession made their way into the cathedral… by way of some very strong Sevillanos!
It was a beautiful day, but we had a LOT of exploring left to do!
That evening Steve and Carmen showed off Sevilla in the best way with carriage rides, a bull fight experience, and topped it off with a flamenco show. aka Sevilla heaven.
xo