Holy Thursday in Álora; blue sky with some clouds.

Holy Thursday in Álora; blue skies with some clouds.

 

 

 

We are well into Semana Santa now. It rained on Saturday (Sabado Pasión) so Jesús atado a la Columna stayed in the church. Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) (Palm Sunday) was a lot nicer so La Pollinica (Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey) set off from the parroquia closely followed by Santa Maria del Amparo Auxiliara.

                                                     La Pollinica

 

María Santisima del Amparo Auxiliadora

 

Mary was carried by young lads (portaleros or costaleros ) who looked absolutely exhausted when they had finished the long, slow route up and down the steep streets of the town. Well done lads.

'Jesus chained to the pillar' eventually took a chance on the weather and set off late in the afternoon while the going was good. He completed the course although a day late. I must say that I find his posture a little nonchalant  or como si nada .

 

Jesús atado a la Columna

All in all things were going swimmingly although the forecast for the week was poor.

Monday was processionless.

On Tuesday we went to Málaga to see their Martes Santo processions. The tronos there are much bigger and are carried by up to 300 portaleros or costaleros. The nazarenos here tend to wear pointed hats which can give you an uneasy feeling until you get used to them. They say that if you think 'Ku Klux Klan' when you see them, you are a tourist.
The tronos are so big some of the portaleros have to carry them from underneath and are called 'submarinos'. Presumably they are chosen on the basis of being strong, not afraid of the dark or confined spaces and have a balanced diet.

 

 

The processions in Málaga go on all day and well into the early hours on every day of the week. The various cofradias wear robes and capirotes (pointed hats) of their special colour. The air is foggy with incense. The main streets are lined with rows of chairs and   full  tribunas (grandstands) rise up above the crowds.

One of the processions has horses, six in number. They were followed by a council street sweeper with a bucket and shovel.

On the night of Miercoles Santo  (Holy Wednesday) in Álora the only sign of life (or death) was a silent procession through the dark unlit streets. No band, not even drums but only a double file of people with candles accompanied Santo Via-Crucis. Nearly all the bars were shut too. The main square was deserted except for a small crowd of hardened drinkers/smokers outside Las Dos Fuentes bar.

The main events here in Álora will take place today (Thursday) and tomorrow. All will depend on the weather. The forecasts are mixed. It has to be fine this evening for Jesus de las Torres to come down from the castle and  process round the town. It is hard to overstate the anxiety here as the day progresses.
Then tomorrow, the day of the Despedía. We will see.

Thursday 28th. March 2013

Álora. What's happening this weekend?......It depends on the weather.

Álora.What's happening this weekend?


I've just been across the street to see Juannie's exhibition of tronos en miniatura (miniature thrones) which he has been advertising for the last week. It's in his zaguán (entrance hall) and he's very proud of it and so is his  mum who will have a busy week ahead of her as Juanie is the biggest fan ever of Semana Santa. He will be in all the processions and seems to be an honorary member of all the hermandads. He's a Real Madrid fan too.
The neighbourhood kids have been marching up and down the street, bashing their paint can drums Now and then sound of real drums drifts across the town as the hermandad bands practise for next week. The ´no parking' signs have been set up along the Passion Saturday  and  Palm Sunday route and reminders put under the windscreen wipers of parked cars. Most people will ignore them. Houses are getting a lick of paint if they are on the route of a procession and the ayuntamiento will be dressing the balconies of steep and narrow Calle Ancha (Wide Street) with pot plants (free!) ready for Jesús de la Torres's return trip down from the castle on Thursday night and back up again on Friday afternoon.

The castle itself is being tarted up too. New floodlights have been installed in more secure housing  (they tend to get stolen) and the weeds have been strimmed. Soon most of the balconies on Calle Ancha will be draped with the purple mantas (sheets) of the Jesus de las Torres hermandad. Calle Ancha is Jesús territory and the vecinos (locals) are very proud of their affiliation, even some of the Brits who colonised this street during the property buying boom of 2002-2007 will put them up. Back in the Plaza Baja (de la Despedía of course) the dark maroon mantas of  Dolores supporters will be more in evidence. Antonio of the estanco (tobacconist's) opposite the side door of the church is a big Dolores fan and hermandad member and his house will be a  picture of devotion. He has a great view of the Despedía from his balcony too. We have not been invited to share the view yet..One day he may even be voted Hermano Mayor. He'd like that,  I´m sure.
We've got a pretty good view too. Most of the processions pass by our door. This year we are expecting to go up the the top square to my sister's new flat for drinks and nibbles. The view from her balcony will be one of the best in town and she doesn't even know it yet . If you're reading this, Anne, red wine for me and Mercadona does lots of interesting snacks.
NB. Mercadona will be shut on Thursday and Friday.

The bars in the Plaza de la Fuente Arriba have taken delivery of extra coolers and  are clearing the decks  for their biggest sales of food and drink of the year.....if the weather holds out.

Tomorrow, Friday,  is Viernes de Dolores. There is a little procession inside the parroquia.

On Saturday at 8.00pm. Jesús atado a la Columna (Jesus tied to the Pillar) will set off from the Plaza Baja.

On Sunday (Domingo Ramos) at  11.45 am. La Pollinica (Jesus entering Jerusalem on an ass, accompanied by María Santísima del Amparo Auxiliadora) will set off from the Plaza Baja.

 On Sunday evening at 8.00pm. Jesús Orando en la Huerta (Jesus praying in the Garden) will depart from the little chapel, La Hermita de Calvario at the top of Calle Calvario and head downhill into town.

Here's a taster.
http://www.alora.es/Inicio/V.asp?IdVideo=220&pag=1

Thursday 21st. March 2013

They're off! Álora's Easter celebrations begin.

 

They're off! Álora's Easter celebrations begin

 

 

                                     María Santísima de los Dolores Coronada (In the centre is Ana Molina, Hermana Mayor of the Dolores hermandad.)

Yesterday, Friday 15th. of March,  just two weeks before Good Friday (Viernes Santo)the Álora Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations were launched. Sorry, kids, Santa will not be appearing.
The annual 'starting pistol' (not my words but those of the Ayuntamiento web page)  is the 'Pregón' (Opening Speech) and takes place in La Parroquia de la Encarnación (Parish Church of the Incarnation) which is in the Plaza Baja de la Despedía and only 25 metres from our front door.

The Semana Santa events are organised by the various hermandads and cofradias (brotherhoods) whose members spend all year raising money for their tronos (thrones), robes, candles and flowers and big dinners.

The tronos carry images of Jesus, The Virgin Mary (whose mother was also a virgin, apparently) , Saint John the Evangelist and a donkey.The hermandads are not exclusively male. Two of them (Dolores Coronada y Soledad and Amor y San Juan are led by a hermana mayor (chief sister) at the moment (they are elected). Each hermandad  produces a cartel (poster) and most of the shops and bars are now plastered with them. Every year the ayuntamiento (town council) produces a poster on behalf of one of the hermandads. This year it is the turn of Dolores.

 

 A  formal dinner is held by the hermandads to launch each poster.   The two most important hermandads are:

María Santísima de los Dolores Coronada y Soledad  (Dolores) and

Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno de las Torres y María Santísima de las Ánimas (El Señor, Cristo or  Jesús)

Both of these hermandads have two thrones and images  each.  Dolores's  second one (María Santísima de la Soledad) bears a close facial similarity to Dolores herself. How's it done? I can only guess.




Tonight the first of the processions took place. It was rather chilly by the time Jesús emerged from the church amid clouds of incense. He was followed by María Ánimas, hundreds of people, lots of candles
and a band.

 
                                                     

 

El Señor

 

 

                                                             María Ánimas

The purpose of tonight's procession was to move Jesús and María Ánimas from the parish church, where they have been since last Easter, to the chapel up at the castle which is also called Las Torres (the towers). Jesus will be brought down again on Jueves Santo (Holy Thursday) only to be taken back up again the next day , Viernes Santo (Good Friday) after saying goodbye to Dolores  during the now famous Despedía  ( goodbye) ceremony. María Ánimas will come back down on the night of Viernes Santo.

                                      
                                   Programme of the recorridos (procession routes)

I hope the above has given my (admittedly tiny) body of readers a taste for the exciting events soon to follow. In all there will be 17 processions. The next one will be next Friday at 8.30pm in the Parroquia when Dolores Coronada will be moved from her altar to her processional throne. See you there!

Saturday 16th. March

I went away and stayed too long.

 

 

I went away and stayed too long

 

 

 

 

                                                   Common Cold Virus

We've been back for a week but  this little chap has been a bit of an aguafiestas (wet blanket). It has literally 'gone viral' with our delicate upper respiratory tracts and drained my enthusiasm even for Álora although I did manage a bowl of callos on Mothers' Day.
I can now report some important changes that are sure to be of interest to anyone eagerly waiting for the first bulletin from Spain this year.

We arrived back in Álora on Tuesday afternoon. As we began the unloading of the car, Isabela came over to greet us. 'There's a crack in the convento'. she appeared to be saying as she embraced us. She has taken to wearing a woolly hat with a peak. I put it down to my newly diagnosed high frequency hearing loss. Then Maria José, who had just locked up the museum at the end of the street and was heading for her lunch,  said roughly the same thing. It must be serious.

The Convento de los Flores (The Convent of Flowers) is up on the Ardales road about half a mile past Mercadona. It is where La Virgen de Flores (The Virgin of Flowers) lives. She is the joint  patrona  (patron virgin) of Álora and is a very important figure in the life of the town.

                                            La Virgen de Flores and friends

Every year in the morning of  the last Sunday in August she is taken from the convento and carried down through the town to the parish church in the Plaza Baja. Nine days of special masses (novena) are held and then on her birthday, September 8th., she is taken on a procession round the town.  On the first Sunday after her birthday the Romeria (pilgrimage) takes place. This is unmissable and involves much rejoicing and drinking.

A crack in the bell tower of the convento as a big deal. It will have to be repaired and by the look of it, the sooner the better. The town is still reeling from the damage caused last year by the floods and  work on putting back the bridge over the Guadalhorce River has not started yet.

That's a  big crack.

Work on the Castillo of Álora seems to have cracked on and the first phase (making the walls safe) seems to be complete. I can now take Tommy for his morning walk without the fear of being buried in moorish masonry. It's looking a lot tidier  up there too and a wooden walkway that goes nowhere has been put there so that you can now walk along it and look down over the Guadalhorce valley. The kestrels seem to like it too. They have returned  from who knows where to breed in the bell tower. I counted 11 yesterday but there are bound to be more. They are lesser kestrels but are apparently unaware of this undeserved slur and keep coming back.

 

                                                     A ´lesser´kestrel 

The view from the castle hasn't changed much. The river is still very full following a long period of rainy weather and at 8.30 am., viewed against the morning sun,  it looks like a river of molten gold.

In the Plaza Baja we are short of a palm tree, The ayuntamiento uprooted the four old, shade giving Indian Laurels and replaced them with four palms just at the time when the red palm weevil was nibbling its way through Andalucía and had already destroyed the only tree on Calle Ancha. Just a stump remains of the first casualty. The other three are almost certain to go too.

The only other significant change has been to the puti club  on the road to Málaga. (more detailed directions supplied on request). It has been painted black and renamed 'Cuorex' which almost rhymes with...well I preferred 'Laurel' (Para que te sientes bien). I should add that it is located in the Pizarra municipality so should not really be included in this Álora blog.

 

The long spell of cold rainy weather has filled the reservoirs to overflowing. We drove up to the embalses near El Chorro and crossed the dam of the Guadalteba lake. The sluice gates were open and made spectacular viewing. Very noisy too.

We had really gone up there for a coffee in La Posada del Conde and to look for the tiny daffodil which I had identified wrongly as a  Hoop Petticoat Daffodil in January. They were there all right but nothing like the Petticoat chaps.

It's Narcissus cantabricus and is white, not yellow as I remembered. It's very small too and very pretty. Aren't I a big softie?

March 14th. 2013