HISTORY OF THE HOLY WEEK IN ZARAGOZA

___________________A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOLY WEEK IN ZARAGOZA_______________

Pass holder - Chariot of Christ of the Bed - Photograph by Jorge Sesé

From the  XIV century,  by royal disposition,  a small procession walked through the streets of the city that came from Saint Francis convent of the Venerable Third Order (VTO) of St. Francis of Assisi in which the Holy Burial was integrated. In 1565, the brotherhood of the Blood of Christ carried out a procession of the Holy Burial. During the 17th, 18th and early 19th  centuries, two processions were organized, one by the Venerable Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi and the other by the brotherhood of the Blood of Christ, who left from the convent of  Saint Francis.

Already in the XVIII century, the Venerable Third Order organized three processions: The Procession of the Meeting (Holy Tuesday), The Procession of the Holy Burial (Good Friday) and The Procession of the Resurrection (Easter Sunday). From 1827 the  brotherhood of the Blood of Christ was the one in charge of organising the Holy Burial and the V.T.O. continued doing the procession of the Meeting during the first decades of the 20th century.

From the 18th century, the religious floats were carried on shoulders by so-called “third parties”: farmers and ranchers around Zaragoza, who wore habits and black coloured “third-heads”- (aragones hoods), similar to the one used by the Third Order- . Those third parties went year after year to the church of St. Isabel of Portugal and, under the direction of the members  of the Blood of Christ, collaborated in the Procession of the Holy Burial.

But in 1935, when the current Holy Week was formed, the political tension and the difficulties, the country was going through, made it very difficult to organize the Procession of the Holy Burial, which had been suspended since 1931. In that year, 1935, there was a fire in the warehouse where the religious floats were kept which affected the Entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem float; there was a “third parties” (teracerol) strike, which meant that the images were taken by members of religious associations and young people; and, even, a bomb was detonated during the procession. As of that year, the religious floats would be equipped with wheels to facilitate their transport.

Thus, in 1937, the first brotherhood of Holy Week was created, organizing an independent procession and taking charge of the religious float of Our Lady of Mercy, property of the  brotherhood of the Blood of Christ. The new group wore a different habit, which distinguishes it from its mother brotherhood, with which it participated in the Procession of the Holy Burial.

In successive years, other brotherhoods were created, up to 23, each with its own peculiarities, which took over the floats owned by the Blood of Christ brotherhood, or commissioned their own floats. Some  brotherhoods, of Aragonese origin, adopted the tercerol (aragonese hood); others covered their head with a pointy hood. In 1940, the Seven Words Brotherhood included the drum of Bajo Aragón to accompany its processional parades, an instrument that was later adopted by most of the brotherhoods.

Some of them preferred to recover more Zaragoza traditions, such as rattles or the song of the “jota” at the same time as the drum.

The main peculiarity of our Holy week is that the brotherhoods as a whole, besides doing their own processions , come together at the Holy Burial procession, composing of a complete Via Crucis, where they contemplate all the moments of the Passion.

In 1995, by decree of the General Council of Aragon, Zaragoza´s Holy Week was declared a “Festival of Tourist Interest in Aragon” and later, in 2001, the Secretary General of Tourism in the Ministry of Economics and Taxation declared it a “National Festival of Tourist Interest“. In 2014, it was declared an “International Festival of Tourist Interest“.

In 1948, due to the rise in the number of  brotherhoods, since 1937, which organized their own acts and penitential processions during Holy Weeks, it was seen as necessary to create an entity that coordinates all of them. With the initiative of the  Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ, the Coordinating Board of the  Brotherhoods was created, dependant on Ecclesiastical Authority and presided over by the brotherhood. Its canonical headquarters is the church of Saint Isabel of Portugal, known popularly as the Church of Saint Cayetano. Source