Saturday, April 11, 2009

Most disappointed

Last night the main procession during Holy Week was due to take place in Torrevieja .

There were seventeen pasos accompanied by around three thousand people including; capirotes, costaleros, acólitos, músicos and devotos scheduled to take part.

Although many of the pasos will have been seen during the week, the unique paso that only takes part in the procession on Good Friday is the one of Santo Sepúlcro. This shows the beautiful image of Christ in the sepulchre created by the torrevejenses sculptors, Rafael and Fulgencio Blanco López in 1954.

Pam and I ate early and got ready to leave the house by about 6:00pm. Our plan was to drive down to Torrevieja, find a seat with a good vantage point where we could watch the parade and hopefully get some good photographs to show you.

The sky had been gray all day but the rain had stayed off. Then just as we were about to leave the house, it started to pour down. The rain was accompanied by thunder and the skies turned black. We could see that it was coming over from Orihuela and so was due to pass us and head towards the coast reaching Torrevieja just as the parade was set to start

Now we know from past experience in Orihuela, that if there is a chance of rain, the imagecofradias will not bring the pasos out. Who can blame them? Some of the sculptures on these things are centuries old.

I know that in some parts of Spain they covered the crosses with polythene sheeting to keep them dry but you simply can't cover a paso like "Jesus praying in the Garden of Olives" with plastic. In any case there would be no point.

So we gambled that the parade would be cancelled and watched the one in Alzira on television instead.

We do know that the procession in Orihuela was postponed until 10am this morning following weather reports of rain and that the processions in Callosa de Segura and Elche were similarly postponed.

All we need now is for someone to tell us that it didn't rain at all in Torrevieja and the parade took place as scheduled. Then we will be kicking ourselves. So please, if you were there, don't tell us!

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