The Beginnings
There are a lot of brotherhooders, with knowledge and aware of this special religious celebration which we are now speaking about. Are also numerous the oject of
the discussion, for example the way the Blessed Images walk along the streets, the most suitable music and the procession does not stop till the end of it, which silver gold worker has to carry out the Palio (altar under pallium where the Virgin is put inside and it´s carried by men), but only few time, due to my short experience as brotherhooder, we ask about the origin of the holy week, where does it come from, this way to celebrate this festivity. When does it begin the way to celebrate the death of Jesus Christ?
For the professor and journalist Antonio Varo Pineda, brotherhooder and Official Announcer in the Holy Week since 1986, it exists a great paralalism between the ancient religious theatre and the nowadays processions of the Holy Week. Varo starts from the idea that the great part of tem are related to the mysteries and they represent
scenes of the Christ’s Passion: the Triumphal Entrance, The Arrest, the Coronation of Thorns…) the situation and the symbology of the images put us in front a theatrical situation, even it is possible to say that both have the same origin, besides nowadays the reality is completely different.
If we come back to the middle age we remember that despite a short stop due to the negative concept of the theatre, the scenic activities in the religious ceremonies was very usual. They consist in representing the readings of the evangelist texts by some priests. And some time after, the evangelist texts were becoming more complex and all together with the introduction of the profane elements, they took out the scenes from the temples and there was a clear difference, little by little, between religious and profane theatre.
The Religious Theatre was evoluting however we must make a distinction because a part of it was giving more importance to the theatre, whereas the other was related
to the liturgy, being this one, Antonio Varo Pineda who led the processions.
Going out of the temple there was another problem: how should Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary and the Apostle be represented without falling into the lack of dignity or the irreverence? The daily and fleshy faces of the people were substituted by the masks and the sacred images, being these last ones those that due to its majestic were better adapted to which was represented. On the other hand, there are the allegoric images that thirty years ago made their procession along our streets; the people were actors, generally children, that kept quiet during the procession, which were put on the wheels.
The consolidation of the image as the authentic main character of the processional scenery did not take the problem out from the participation of the people in the act. In fact Christ appears as the main protagonist of the procession.
the discussion, for example the way the Blessed Images walk along the streets, the most suitable music and the procession does not stop till the end of it, which silver gold worker has to carry out the Palio (altar under pallium where the Virgin is put inside and it´s carried by men), but only few time, due to my short experience as brotherhooder, we ask about the origin of the holy week, where does it come from, this way to celebrate this festivity. When does it begin the way to celebrate the death of Jesus Christ?
For the professor and journalist Antonio Varo Pineda, brotherhooder and Official Announcer in the Holy Week since 1986, it exists a great paralalism between the ancient religious theatre and the nowadays processions of the Holy Week. Varo starts from the idea that the great part of tem are related to the mysteries and they represent
scenes of the Christ’s Passion: the Triumphal Entrance, The Arrest, the Coronation of Thorns…) the situation and the symbology of the images put us in front a theatrical situation, even it is possible to say that both have the same origin, besides nowadays the reality is completely different.
If we come back to the middle age we remember that despite a short stop due to the negative concept of the theatre, the scenic activities in the religious ceremonies was very usual. They consist in representing the readings of the evangelist texts by some priests. And some time after, the evangelist texts were becoming more complex and all together with the introduction of the profane elements, they took out the scenes from the temples and there was a clear difference, little by little, between religious and profane theatre.
The Religious Theatre was evoluting however we must make a distinction because a part of it was giving more importance to the theatre, whereas the other was related
to the liturgy, being this one, Antonio Varo Pineda who led the processions.
Going out of the temple there was another problem: how should Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary and the Apostle be represented without falling into the lack of dignity or the irreverence? The daily and fleshy faces of the people were substituted by the masks and the sacred images, being these last ones those that due to its majestic were better adapted to which was represented. On the other hand, there are the allegoric images that thirty years ago made their procession along our streets; the people were actors, generally children, that kept quiet during the procession, which were put on the wheels.
The consolidation of the image as the authentic main character of the processional scenery did not take the problem out from the participation of the people in the act. In fact Christ appears as the main protagonist of the procession.
Text: J.A.S.C.
Traslated by Sara Moretti
Art, Culture and Tourism in Cordoba