Friday, April 18, 2014

Is it all about the sweets?

Those of you who have visited different towns for the Easter parades will have noticed unique differences between them. In Cartagena, for example, the parades are more solemn and there are no sweets to give out to the children who go to watch. In Orihuela though, the cofrades hand out sweets all along the route.

You can see the bulging bags of candy hidden beneath the cloaks of the nazarenes as they pass by. Children jostle to be at the front where they stand (or sit) with open carrier bags hoping to collect as many sweets as they can. Inevitably, the children who are taking part seek out their friends on the route to favour with large handfuls. Everybody gets something though ranging from sugary confection to boxes of chocolates and other gifts.

Today is the general procession in Orihuela where all the cofradias with the exception of the brotherhoods of Silence and  Good Death will parade.

The ones taking part will have visited Beumut brothers in the district of San Francisco to stock up on sweets for tonight. The owners say that, even in this time of crisis, they have sold between 40 and 50,000 kilograms of sweets. You know that is an awful lot of tooth rotting sugar to hand out! 

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