No Easter bunnies here...

Holy Week celebrations in Spain have always seemed to me to be somewhat more appropriate for Halloween. I always get this eery sensation that the dead (not Jesus) are going to raise from the dead and walk the streets at night - a far cry from Easter celebrations back home full of lillies, eggs and bunnies.

Funeral processions weave through the streets every spring and although I've seen it so many times, it's just not easy to get used to. A death march is played on the drums; smokey incense fills the air; people walking in lines, sometimes barefoot, wearing chains on their feet, holding candles or large crosses or whips, and usually with their heads covered with a centries-old costume that was later copied by the KKK; carrying on their shoulders heavy statues of Holy Week protagonists dressed with real hair and clothes.

And come Easter Sunday everyone usually forgets the ending of this celebration and file back onto the freeway to return to Madrid without having gone to mass. No joyous end (actually if you get stuck in traffic you're probably cussing out God rather than praising his name). No happy children or trumpets or bunnies. Everyone is basically pooped.