Alora is a quaint and pretty town of Phoenician origins some 35km from Malaga on the N357. Romans, Moors and the Catholic Monarchs (Fernando and Isabel) also left their mark. The town has a number of festivals each year, celebrating religious events, flamenco, music, dancing, and the local cuisine. The highlight of the year however is Semana Santa – Holy Week.

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday with the image of Jesus Praying in the Garden being taken from the Chapel of Jesus Praying in the Garden on Calle Calvario and paraded through the streets. Then throughout the week until Easter Sunday the town is a festival of bands and processions, music and flowers. The main event is the Despedía, which takes place at midday on Good Friday, commemorating the Crucifixion of Jesus, and centres around the ceremonial processions of life-size models of Jesus and the Virgin Mary through the town.

The processions themselves are a tremendous act of faith. The statues of Jesus and Mary are mounted on heavy gilded floats. Each float is so heavy that it takes at least fifty men to carry each one at shoulder height. The bearers are dressed in purple robes or shirts and wear white gloves. They walk with a slow, measured, swinging gait and the strain of carrying their heavy burden is clearly visible on their faces.

The two statues were sculpted by a local Spanish artist, Navas Parejo, and named Jesus of the Towers and Most Holy Mary of the Sorrows, stand for most of the year in the chapel of the old Arabic castle, with its towers and the picturesque graveyard within its walls, which stands on a promontory dominating (and in former times, protecting) the town.

Jesus, clad in robes of dark blue velvet and wearing a gilt crown of thorns, carries his cross to his crucifixion surrounded by a profusion of deep red roses and brilliant purple iris. Mary, wearing a white dress decorated with gold braid, a dark green velvet cloak and a gilded headress, stands surrounded by pale orange roses and white lilies, on a slightly less splendid float than her son.

Music, marching and standard bearing displays are performed by military bands. Such close involvement of the military in these deeply religious events sometimes bewilders northern Europeans , but this has been an accepted fact of life in Spain since the final Christian re-conquest of the country from the Moors by the Catholic Monarchs Fernando (of Aragón) and Isabel (of Castilla) in 1492. Even the local military mascot, a rather bored looking ram, joins in the parades.

The processions of Jesus and Mary each take a different route through the town to the Plaza Baja de la Despedía. Crowds line the routes and as the processions pass there is tremendous sense of occasion and history which impresses even non-believers. Here they ‘meet and greet’ in front of the Parish Church of La Encarnación, the oldest Christian church in Alora. The bearers of each float, still bearing their burden, kneel down and rise up three times, a truly Herculean effort, in this symbolic and sorrowful farewell from Mary to her son before His execution.

However, the event is somehow spectacular and joyful as well as solemn; and afterwards soldiers, float bearers, onlookers, and their families, congregate around Alora’s numerous café-bars and restaurants. Later there may be music and dancing. In the evening the image of Our Lady of Piety and Holy True Cross is taken in procession through the streets from the 17th century Iglesia de la Veracruz on Calle Veracruz, before being returned to the Church towards midnight.

Semana Santa is very much a family occasion and Alora, still predominantly a rural Spanish town, is a much better place to capture the cosy feeling of community spirit than the larger coastal towns of Malaga or Marbella. People of all faiths and none are warmly welcomed just so long as they and their cameras don’t get in the way of the marchers or the military. It all seems a very long way from the piles of chocolate eggs back home in the UK.

Footnote
During the last weekend in April the statue of Our Lady of the Head, who is also a patron saint of Alora, leaves the 17th century Chapel of St Bridget close to Alora railway station in the district of La Estación and is paraded in a romería or festival through the streets of La Estación. The Virgin of the Flowers is a fellow patron saint of the town and her image stands in the 16th century Chapel of Our Lady of the Flowers on the Avda Virgen de Flores.