Even if it was expected, it is no longer news, and in this case more because of the social, economic and spiritual impact it has as well as the time in which it was, but Storm Nelson fulfilled the bad omens that he brought for this Maundy Thursday and left most of the towns and villages of Castilla y León without being able to enjoy the processions of Holy Week.
In the city of ValladolidFor example, up to fifteen processional parades were scheduled and none could take place due to the rains and the strong wind of this storm which seems to accompany us for several more days during which it will spoil the most important celebration and the more rooted in this Community. .
One of the most important processions of Holy Week in Valladolid, suspended this Holy Thursday, was that of Penance and Charity of the Most Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Lady of Mercy of Valladolid, that not only could he not take the passage from “La Quinta Angustia” by Gregorio Fernández (1625) to the streets, but he also could not comply with the tradition of pardoning a prisoner for the eighth consecutive year, since In 2016 the government granted this “favor” to a businessman, brother of La Piedad, convicted of economic crimes.
The suspension of processions has forced religious acts and services to take place inside temples, where the faces of the brothers were a poem of desolation and sadness at not being able to go out into the streets to march.
That of Christ of the Light, forganized by professors and students of the University of Valladolid, nor one of the novelties of this year’s Passion of Valladolid: the Christ of the Most Precious Blood He was going to parade on his shoulders for the first time, to the great dismay of his brothers and his bearers.
And as we expect things to remain the same, or even worse, this Good Friday, the Governing Council of the Brotherhood of the Seven Words of Valladolid decided this afternoon that the Seven Words Sermon expected that the Plaza Mayor will be held inside the cathedral due to the “high probability” of rain. It will be pronounced from 12 p.m. by the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Valladolid and rector of the National Basilica-Shrine of the Great Promise, Jesus Fenández Lubiano.
And in Salamanca, After an afternoon of looking at the sky, the predictions came true and the rain prevented the brothers from Brotherhood of Christ of Love and Peace from the charro capital to take to the streets this image and that of Mary Our Mother of the church of Arrabal, Thus leaving the town of Tormes without one of the most emblematic images of its Holy Week, that of the friars accompanying their steps over the Roman bridge, with the cathedral in the background, to enter the historic center of the town.
In addition, the traditional entry into the Cathedral of Salamanca was also planned, halfway, to be able to perform the penitential act in the atrium next to the images of the Christ of Love and Peace, an anonymous work of the 17th century, and Mary Notre-Dame, created in 1987 by Hipólito Pérez Calvo. But it couldn’t be
To Leon, The bad weather also did not allow one of the most important moments of Holy Week to be celebrated normally and in all its splendor: the Proclamation on horseback organized by the Brotherhood of the Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross, including the tour through the city was curtailed by the rain that fell.
In Zamora, At the close of this edition, two processions had been suspended, including that of La Vera Cruz, one of the most popular in the capital of Zamora for water, which joins the Via Crucis on the afternoon of Holy Tuesday and the Procession of the Royal Brotherhood of the Santísimo Cristo de las Injurias, which also could not take the oath of silence of its brothers in the Cathedral Square.
In Avilawhose Passion is also declared of international tourist interest, the spectacular Procession of Los Pasos was also suspended, which is why the Via Crucis was celebrated inside the Cathedral of Ávila, a place that houses the ten marches that were to appear in the parade organized by the Royal and Illustrious Patronage of Santa Vera Cruz, the oldest of Holy Week in Ávila.
In PalenceThe Prayer in the Garden of the True Cross or the Prayer of Forgiveness and Indult of the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Christ of Mercy were also not performed.
The rain also forced this Holy Thursday to move the Stations of the Cross at the Brotherhood of the Holy and Venerable Slavery and Holy Burial of Christ of the Gascons was going to take place in the upper area of the Aqueduct of Segovia with images of the Christ of the Gascons and the Virgin of the Tailors.
AND in Burgosthe rain forced the suspension of the Encuentro procession, one of the most moving of Holy Week in the capital of Burgos, during which images of Our Lady of Sorrows and Jesus with the cross on his backafter procession from their respective temples, They find themselves like Mother and Son at the foot of the Cathedral.
Institutional visit
On the other hand thedo, it should be noted that the vice president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo, was present today in the town of Zamora Bercianos de Aliste at the Eucharist celebrated in the church of San Mamés and, later, he visited the museum of the Brotherhood of the Holy Burial, in one of the most important moments of the Passion of this municipality.
The one that will certainly not be suspended is the one known as the Genarín procession, in León even if it comes from pagan and festive character which begins one minute before midnight in memory of the flayer who nearly a century ago he was killed by the city’s first garbage truckin the busiest Holy Week in León, with the image on a stretcher of Genaro and the recitation of burlesque verses.