Cartagena Viernes de Dolores Día de la Patrona

Good Friday is also a local holiday in Cartagena, the day of the patron saint of Cartagena

Viernes de Dolores not only marks the start of Semana Santa in Cartagena, it's also the day of the patrón saint of the city, the Virgen de la Caridad.

This was written following a visit to find out what happens in Cartagena on this special day:
On Friday the decisión was taken to go along and see the Ofrenda Floral, or floral offering, in Cartagena. Last year, with no knowledge of what any of it was about, and having arrived in Cartagena purely by chance, we had looked with curiosity at the parade of costumed children and families clutching flowers passing by, opted for a bit of tapas and gone home, without having any idea of what was actually going on.

This year, we opted to start in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in front of the imposing Palacio Consistorial, and asked the participants in broken Spanish about the clothes they were wearing.

This, it transpired, was traditional Murcian regional costume, the procession including a mixture of formal and country wear, depending on the group parading. Each of the groups represented was either a neighbour’s association, folk group, local association of some sort, or musical group and as well as Cartagena, there were also representatives from other areas, hence the fact that some of the costumes were markedly different.

Purchasing these costumes is expensive, so often these are made within family or association units, stockings worn crocheted by hand, as they would have been in pre-nylon days, each pattern unique to the family who made them.

Traditionally, each woman would have made her own family clothes, and the embroidery on many of the older generations clothes was all done by hand, every stitch of it, although some of the younger mothers confessed to machine made designs or purchasing part of their costume.

The rough woolen dresses were everyday country wear, those with velvet cut-outs Sunday wear for country dwellers and only the Carthaginian townies wore silk and sequins.

Intrigued as to where 2000 bunches of  flowers went, we followed the procession and were swept into the Iglesia of La Caridad amidst a sea of people, the flowers left outside on enormous metal stands prepared to receive them, with council employees wearing safety harnesses depositing the highest offerings at the top of the structure.

The church was packed, the procession filing down the centre, to be greeted by the Mayoress and her councilors at the front. Squeezed down the aisle with them, we pushed out to the side and sat on the floor watching for a while, when suddenly security stopped the flow, and a group of musicians assembled at the altar, dancers spread out in the central aisle and the music began, castanets clicking and coloured robes swirling in the aisle as the dancers celebrated the day of the Patrona inside her church.

Finally, the procession finished and just as we were about to squeeze out of the back, a lady grabbed my arm and said, “look, Jesus is at the door,” and we turned around, and there, framed by the doorway was the powerful figure of Jesus, resplendent on a golden trono, surrounded by vibrant purple irises, bobbing up and down, greeting the patrona of Cartagena.

Slowly his portapasos turned him around and he continued on his journey along the streets followed by a crowd as the floral procession imploded and the crowd merged with the his procession: the Vía Crucis.  A Via Crucis, follows the stations of the cross around the city, pausing at each marked station for a reading before the figure of Jesus peeled off to come face to face with the Virgen Mary in what’s known as an encuentro.

The Virgin Mary was close behind him on an enormous trono, carried only by women, 100 of them. From time to time they would rest the trono on wooden legs to catch their breath, then as they lifted their burden once again the crowd would cry out "Vive la Virgen, guapa, guapa, guapa, " Live the Virgin, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful" the street throbbing as they cheered and clapped, staffs resonating in rhythm to the cries, the whole experience emotional, uplifting and indescribably enveloping, so we just joined the crowd and followed the Via Crucis until the two pasos split and went in different directions around the square in front of the MURAM art museum, meeting face to face, rocking gently together to tumultuous applause and an enormous explosion of white fireworks.

By now, vibrantly coloured robes were passing, pointed capirotes draped over the arms of their penitents, musical instruments clanking in rhythm, so we followed them to see what they were doing, and ended up in a whirling medley of colour by the Iglesia de Santa Maria de Gracia. Penitents were assembling for the first parade of the week, enjoying a last cigarette, a quick chat with their friends, and loading up on liquid before donning their capirotes, entering the church by the side door as a chattering crowd of assorted colours, then emerging through the front door as an orderly procession, silent, reverent , in perfect order, and in perfect time.
Magical.

Semana Santa in Cartagena was underway