I'm not really sure where to put this thread, but I'll try here. After a suggestion from MadridMan, I watched the Semana Santa processions live on TV Thursday night and Friday night from Sevilla, courtesy of MadridMan's multimedia page. Despite studying in Spain, I didn't know much about the festivities as I didn't celebrate Semana Santa in Spain (went to a different country) and for some reason I never learned a lot about it since then.

I thought I'd just turn on the coverage for a few minutes on Thursday night (la madrugada de Viernes Santo/Good Friday en Sevilla), but then I was mesmerized! I watched for several hours that night as "La Macarena" left her home church. Last night (Saturday morning for Sevilla) I turned it on again only to sit for awhile longer to see "La Macarena" return to her church.

So, now Semana Santa is on my "must-see" list in Spain. (I'd love to see Las Fallas in Valencia again as it's been many years since I experienced it the first time, but that's an entirely different thread)

If you want to watch some of the coverage of Semana Santa, go to MadridMan\'s multmedia page and scroll down to the television section. I watched on Canal Sur the last two days. I noticed that you can now watch reruns from this entire week, too.

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter!

la historiadora writes: That's el Portal de la Macarena where it begins and ends; but you have to be there to really get the feel of it: like Cantaores de Flamenco singing praises to la Virgen from los Balcones as the Procession passes by. We 'lucked out.' Took 07:30 AVE from Madrid, then an 'Exterior loop' bus from Avda. Kansas City at estacion Santa Justa and got off at el Portal de la Macarena around 10:30, about 30min before the Procession started to arrive.

There are also some awesome viernes Santa Processions in Jerez and in Huelva.

I too watched a number of processions from Andalucia on television - those not canceled by rain, that is - and found them fascinating. I love them.

Hopefully you'll be able to go someday, la historiadora.

Saludos, MadridMan

Yes, I hope so too!

I'll be right in there with all the others yelling ¡Macarena! ¡Guapa!

<singing> "¡Hey, Macarena!"

It's officially Semana Santa, and I'm ready to watch some of the processions online! I presume that Canal Sur will show them again, and I'm wondering what the programming schedule is like. Last year I only watched on Holy Thursday/Good Friday so I'm not sure how often the rest of the processions are shown. MadridMan, I know you like watching these processions, too, so if you have any details or insights, I'd be glad to hear them!

For those who want to watch processions of Sevilla, from a live televison, have a look at this link http://www.turismosevilla.tv/portada.html

Thanks for that link, Lonoma! Unfortunately for Firefox, you have to install an extra Plug-In in order to watch it - and I'm not going to install an mystery plug-in which will have unpredictable affects later on. Seems my MSIE browser DOES already have the plug-in installed, however.

Saludos, MadridMan

I'm with la historiadora, if anyone knows the schedule and which MM link to watch it on, please post!
I was fortunate enough to see the prosessions in Sevilla on Holy Thursday and in a small pueblo outside of Cadiz in 2003 and was blown away with emotion and excitement...I can't wait to take my daughter some day!

Lonoma, thanks for the link! I am with MadridMan in that I am not going to download the Silverlight plug-in (I use Internet Explorer) to watch the processions live on that website. But, I just watched some of the pre-recorded videos related to Semana Santa and I thought they were very good! I liked the use of black-and-white photography and captions in English and Spanish. I learned a few new things about the Semana Santa processions from the short videos.