I’ve been excited for this week for months because this week is basically the climax of the program: The Corpus Christi celebrations. Nobody is really sure what Corpus Christi actually is, but upon doing some Googling I learned that it is a Catholic holiday honoring the body of Christ in holy water. Granada is known for having the biggest celebration in the Andalucia area. We have today and tomorrow off of school because the University of Granada is closed for the holiday, as well as most businesses in the city. Yesterday, we saw the “pagan” parade through the city, which was short and lively with lots of music, dancing, and crazy figures of some historical significance, but with the annoyance of a sports team mascot. Most notably, there is a dragon in the procession, with a mannequin on top, which is apparently dressed every year in the latest fashion That night, after getting tapas and watching the World Cup, we went to the ferria, which boasts dozens of party tents (casetas) where people go to dance and classic fair food. There was also weird fair food such as a baked potato stand and giant Coke flavored Twizzler-like candies. We’re going back tonight to ride the rides and people watch. People were in very good spirits, considering Spain had just lost another game in the World Cup. Today, we woke up “early” to observe the religious, serious procession that ended up lasting two hours. In the beginning, there were dozens of young flamenco dancers and lively music and the mannequins (translated in English, their names literally mean “Giants and Big Heads”) ran around and beat people with balloons that they carried. It was comical but also completely terrifying. After the “fun” of the Giants/Big Heads, flamenco dancers, and bands, followed a silent procession of hundreds of people, all with different medals and flags. Towards the end, nuns and priests came by, chanting. At the end of the parade came the moment we had heard so much about: the monstrance (I hope that’s what it is called), which is a gigantic, ornate shrine of sorts made of gold and silver. Being front row, we were almost taken out by it because people don’t like to stand back calmly-they want to get as close as possible, meaning I was almost pushed into the procession a lot. After realizing we weren’t going to be crushed by the religious shrine, it was incredible being that close to the main part of the parade. People applaud as it comes by because it is extremely heavy and delicate.
Saturday we’re going back to the Sierra Nevada and Sunday we’re going to Malaga. Another week of fun and chaos to be had!
La ferria
“Giants and Big Heads”- these creepy dolls with people inside run around with balloons and just smack people with them. It’s funny until a bunch of them single you out
Being front row for the Corpus Christi celebration- we waited two hours to see this heavy, intricate shrine-like statue be paraded around
part of the procession during the Corpus Christi
Being hit by one of the Big Heads- photo credit to Charlotte Talis
Did you know that those “balloons” are actually inflated goat bladders?