Wednesday 1 April 2015

WOYWW 304 Semana santa, sunshine and a messy desk

WOYWW- 304 
Semana Santa, sunshine and a messy desk....

My desk is a work in progress. I've not been at my desk a lot as it has been such lovely hot weather....

Some of my friends want to come round on Thursday to do some crafting. They all want to do scrapbooking as this is something new here. (they don’t send cards so card making is not popular). In the photos you can see I’m getting some materials ready. This is another way of using up old stash...
 None of my friends have jobs so I have to keep it simple as nobody can afford any materials. I provide the materials and I’ll do A4 pages, as albums and transparent sleeves are easy to get by in A4. I’m looking forward to it and I hope they like it. I’ve done some sample pages in A4 as I usually do 12x12. I will be taking photos and show one next week.

Here in Spain it's Holy Week (Semana Santa) and it's the biggest religious celebration of the year here, which means public holidays, a good deal of eating and drinking and lots of processions. Easter is a time for Spaniards to take to the streets and watch elaborate reenactments of the Passion, as well as enjoy some time off work in the company of their families and friends. 
Elaborate processions take place throughout Holy Week. Associations known as cofradías or ‘brotherhoods’ (whose members take part in the processions) are a strong tradition in Spain, with many dating back to the Middle Ages.
Semana Santa processions are also known as ‘penance processions’ and involve members of the brotherhood (nazarenos) parading from their church to the city’s cathedral. People taking part in Semana Santa processions dress in traditional capirote; the tall conical hat which also covers their faces, as well as in belted robes. (a bit like the Ku Klux Klan) Capirotes used to be reserved for people doing penance - as a sign of atoning their sins, they would walk through the town wearing the hat, their faces covered so they could not be recognized as sinners. 
Women often wear the mantilla, a black lace veil worn high on the back of the head. 
In most Easter processions, participants carry large floats, or pasos, that are adorned with religious sculptures depicting Jesus or Mary, some by renowned Spanish artists. The floats are festooned with flowers and candles and are the focal point of the procession. Many brotherhoods have owned and preserved their pasos for hundreds of years. In our nearest town Granada there will be 32 processions this week!
(The photos I found on the Granada website, and some of the info is from there too)
I have received several nice postcards this week. This one is from Poland and has hand painted eggs on it.

With this image I wish every one a happy Easter, good weather and hopefully a few days off with loved ones,

Happy Easter!
Lisca


PS If you want to know what this desk hopping is all about, visit Julie’s blog at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

19 comments:

  1. Happy Easter to you too; thank you for all the info on your local culture it was really interesting i hope that you find time to go and see one of them :) good luck with your scrapbooking
    happy woyww
    Mrs C.xx
    http://craftroomdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/woyww-april-1st-2015.html

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  2. Happy Easter to you all too. Your Spanish festivals look full of colour and as you say passion. How lovely to be introducing your friends to scrapbooking. Even if materials and funds are in short supply, inspiration will never be! Have a great time
    Lynda B 20

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  3. How interesting scrapbooking is big there and cardmaking not! I love the eggs, so beautiful, and the purple flowers under the statue look amazing. A very colourful visit this week. Have fun with your scrappy friends!
    Happy WOYWW and I'm not fooling'!
    :)
    Mary Anne (1)

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  4. I hope you have lots of fun with your friends scrapbooking. I love all the Spanish celebrations....they sure know how to party don't they? :-)
    Hugs,
    Annie x #14

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  5. Well, you can certainly have choice about which processions you might want to see - 32 in a week! We've been in Torrevieja for Semana Santa and it's quite beautiful.
    Good luck with the scrapbooking, I think that's very generous of you, and A4 is very sensible given the circumstances.

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  6. Happy Easter to you and your family too:) Wonderful explanation of how it happens in Spain.....& I'm sure your girls will LOVE doing the A4 pages.....sounds great fun!!!

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  7. Lisca,

    What a wonderful thing you are doing for the ladies I am sure you will set them on a hobby that is addictive and they wont be able to stop, you might have to start hiding your stash LOL. Those celebrations sound wonderful ah the traditions and your history surely does sound like a wonderful way to spend Easter, wish I could see it one day.

    Happy WOYWW
    Hugs Eliza & Yoda 41

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  8. I want to come and play too!! Hope you have a lovely time.
    We used to go to Spain at Easter and I really miss it, the weather is lovely at this time of the year and there is so much going on.
    Have a great weekand happy woyww, Angela x 29

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  9. I hope you and your friends have a great time. Happy Easter to you and your family.

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  10. Hi Lisca, lovely to hear about all your local traditions and customs. Really struggling today, am round late, had to go to Docs, got a rotten chest infection thats not clearing. Thought it was going after last week, but its come back with a vengeance. Now have another lot of anti-biotics, and steroids to take for a week. Have a great week, Hugs, Shaz xx #37

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  11. Happy Easter! Thanks for sharing your customs and traditions! And have a GREAT time with your friends!! Happy WOYWW!
    Carol N #46

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  12. Happy Easter, Lisca! Thanks for sharing the traditions of Spain for Holy Week. It must be awesome to see all that. You'll have a great time scrapbooking with your friends. I'll check back to read all about it. Have a good week. Hugs, Nann4 #42

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  13. Thanks so much for telling us about Easter in your neck of the woods, as they say.

    Thanks for sharing, Happy WOYWW
    Pat #64

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  14. Lovely hot weather! Lucky you! We had snow storms the whole day!
    It is great that you are writing about the events and habits of your new home. I love to read about it, it is very interesting.
    I don't buy a lot of scrap supply, I don't have any of those cute machines and I use newspaper for collages. Have a wonderful Easter holiday and enjoy the wonderful weather!
    Hugs
    Gabriele 19

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  15. I bet your friends will appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity setting up the crafting session for them..hope it goes well :-) thanks for the photos of the parades too, really interesting to read!
    Hugs, LLJ 4 xx

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  16. Now that sounds like a brilliant way to use up old stash and have a wonderful time with friends all at the same time and A4 is a good size to adapt down to from 12 x 12, looking forward to seeing the results of your sessions!! Hope you enjoy your Spanish Easter celebrations, certainly looks like fun is to had! Annette #22

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  17. Lovely to read that you are spreading crafting throughout the area in which you now live and to read about the Easter processions. I bet the processions are well worth seeing and as we are visiting Nerja in a couple of weeks time I am a little sad that we did not make it for Easter weekend. It would have been good to see some of the cultural celebrations.
    Thanks for a lovely post, most interesting.
    Hugs, Neet xx 11

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  18. Hi! Thanks for stopping by my blog :) You're now in my Blogloving list ;)
    A big hug from Valencia :D

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  19. What an interesting post, Lisca, with your lovely desk and thoughtfulness in providing suitable scrapbooking supplies in Spain, and also the fascinating insight into the celebrations during Holy Week and Easter in Spain. Beautiful decorated eggs, too! Thank you so much for your numerous, loving, encouraging and prayerful comments during my time in hospital, both for me and my hubby, and for thinking of me so much. I am glad to be home (came home Tuesday) and my recovery is going well. I have loads of lovely messages to reply to and it's going to take me some time! Keep an eye on my blogs for further updates as I manage to do them.

    Shoshi

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