Basque ethnography at a glance

Roman guards. Fernando Hualde.Holy Week celebrations are seemingly very similar; the religious structure around which they are organised and the underlying reason for holding them are the same, and Pamplona organises the same type of penitential acts as in other locations. In the case of the capital of Navarra, they include the typical Services of each holy day and the Santo Entierro (Holy Burial) procession on Good Friday evening, along with the “Seven Last Words” ceremony held in the Cathedral in the morning on that Friday. However, Pamplona has successfully added its own touches down through the centuries and which make Pamplona’s Holy Week idiosyncratic and unique. Let us look at some of its most important aspects that are not found elsewhere.

Christ on the Cross. F. Hualde.

The first, of which few people are aware, is that the city of Spain holds the first procession in the lead up to Holy Week in Spain, and that happens exactly forty days earlier, i.e., on Ash Wednesday. On that day, and with the city still nursing its carnival hangover, Roman guards lead out masked penitents ―known as mozorros in Pamplona― in total silence. It is only broken by the creak of the wooden bier as it sways to the pace of the members La Pasión brotherhood carrying the paso or float of Cristo alzado (Christ on the Cross) ―the work of Fructuoso Orduna from the Roncal Valley― from the Dormitalería to Pamplona Cathedral where it is met by the cathedral’s chapter. That sombre figure spends Lent there and adds solemnity to the penitential Stations of the Cross each Friday in the run up to Holy Week.

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