Seville, (EFE).- The festivity of Holy Thursday, which is celebrated today throughout Andalusia, is a great day of Holy Week, a day of tradition in which sensations and emotions intensify and which brings out notable brotherhoods to the streets in all the Andalusian capitals and which is, in all of them, the prelude to the long-awaited ‘Madrugá’.
Tradition like the one that marks this day in Seville and that generates one of the most characteristic images of its Holy Week, that of women dressed ‘mantilla’, accompanied by men dressed in dark, as a sign of mourning for the death of Jesus Christ.
A common picture for the Sevillian but that surprises foreigners and that gives today and tomorrow a singularity.
Los Negritos, Las Cigarreras, La Exaltación, el Valle, Montesión, la Quinta Angustia and Pasión are the brotherhoods that walk through the streets of Seville this solemn afternoon.
In Malaga, Holy Thursday is marked by the landing at the port of the Legion to accompany the Christ of the Good Death, known as Cristo de Mena. This morning, thousands of people from Malaga crowded the streets during the passage of the legionnaires to the brotherhood house for the enthronement of Christ.
Holy Thursday of Charity in Andalusia
In addition to Mena, the brotherhoods of Sagrada Cena, Santa Cruz, Viñeros, Zamarrilla, Vera Cruz de Fusionadas, Misericordia and Esperanza will do a penance station; According to tradition, the entire path of Esperanza’s procession is carpeted with rosemary, which the Virgin blesses as she passes.
The Lord of Charity, in Córdoba, will not be accompanied by legionaries of the Tercio Gran Capitán, brothers of the brotherhood, an absence that seems to take the shine off this Holy Thursday that will open another brotherhood founded in the 16th century, the Nazarene.
Another centenary, in this case from the 17th, the Fallen, will go down the Cuesta de San Cayetano again from the parish of the Discalced Carmelites, before the youngest of today leaves, the Holy Supper; Later three other references to Holy Week in Cordoba will follow: Las Angustias, Cristo de Gracia and La Buena Muerte.
In Granada, a total of five brotherhoods do the same, including the three of the most revered and popular virgins of the Albaicín, la Concha, la Aurora and la Estrella.
On this day, in which the brotherhood of Los Salesianos also comes out, the Cristo de la Misericordia also stands out -already at dawn-, which runs silently along the Carrera del Darro and at the foot of the Alhambra, with the lights off and only with the sound of a hoarse drum as the only musical accompaniment.
And the “Madrugá” will arrive
Four are the brotherhoods that procession in Huelva, which has its main stage in the center of the city. The Prayer in the Garden is the first to leave its temple, the Conception; Mercy, example of sobriety and silence; Good Death, from the convent church of Santa María de Gracia; and The Jews from the Cathedral of La Merced.
For Cádiz, Holy Thursday is the big day of its Holy Week, just like in Andalusia. The brotherhoods of Oración en el Huerto, Afligidos, El Nazareno and Medinaceli procession. These last two have two of the most revered and expected images in the capital of Cádiz, the Nazarene and Our Father Jesus Captive and Rescued.
In Almería they carry out the Silencio, Rosario del Mar, Angustias and Encuentro penance stations. The latter stars in one of the most anticipated moments of Holy Week in Almería when Verónica and the Nazarene separate their path from that of the Virgen de la Amargura to meet her in the Plaza Circular, an overwhelming event that attracts crowds.
There are three brotherhoods that parade this afternoon through the streets of the capital of Jaén, Vera Cruz, Expiración and El Gran Poder, which this year changes ‘Madrugá’ to the afternoon of Holy Thursday.
The end of this Holy Thursday in Andalusia will be mixed with the start of the ‘Madrugá’ on Good Friday, an expected night in which devotion takes on a special and singular aspect as some of the most revered images of Andalusian Holy Week pass by. . EFE