Not the Ku Klux Klan??

The above image is not a recruitment party for the KKK although that is exactly what it looks like. Now is the period of Easter and Easter in Spain and in much of Europe is not your typical chocolate festival. Here it is actually a religious occasion, who'd have thought?

The Easter traditions of Spain are based on those of the Roman Catholic Church and Easter is 99% about the Crusification of Christ and 1% about chocolate.

For the whole period of Semana Santa which is the time for Easter, every city of the country hosts its own parades and ceremonies. People dress in robes with hoods, in different colours depending on the tradition of the area. They have processions where these hooded followers carry replicas of Christ on the Cross and what I thought was the most interesting is that in most of them the colour of Jesus Christ's skin is dark brown and not white as the Americans would want you to believe. There are others who walk in the processions topless, with chains around their feet and a whip which they hit themselves with on the back. For the most part the images of these processions and ceremonies are a little frightening.

Thousands of people travel to Spain from all over the place to witness these Easter traditions. It is really a big part of the life here in Spain.

It's interesting to be in a country that considers the Christian Holy days as religious occasions and not material ones as they are for the most part in Australia. People in Spain are actually mourning the passing of Christ and not celebrating a rabbit who gives away chocolate. Still I'm not sure about the attire that they wear. I am yet to find out exactly what it symbolises and even if it does have some deep spiritual meaning I still think it looks scary.

Here are some more pictures.. also none of these images are mine, click on the image to go to the site where I got it from and also to get more information about Semana Santa