Ok. I've been wanting to share these pics and videos with several people for some time, and the other day I noticed I could upload videos, so here ya go! But Stop! Before you watch them, read my explanation of what they are first. They'll have more meaning.

So when I went to Spain last year to visit the 2YG, I went during Holy Week, or Semana Santa. And Semena Santa in Sevilla is a really, really, really big deal. If you want the long version of it, this is a really good site: Semana Santa. The short version is that the different brotherhoods of the churches in Sevilla have processions throughout the week. There are something like 50 of these processions and they last for nearly 12 hours. That's 12 hours each procession. The people walk in them for 12 hours with no break, folks. Some of them walk the entire thing in bare feet, even on the night that I filmed these. And that night it was probably hovering around 30 degrees. I was wearing like 4 shirts, a hat and a scarf because I wrongly assumed that Spain in April would be a warm place. And the strange part is, very few of them are actually religious. I got to talk with some of the 2YG's friends that were in the processions and they said they do it because it's part of their heritage.

The different brotherhoods do different kinds of processions. Some are silent, some have music, some are during the day, and some are during the night. All participants, however, wear a particular kind of clothing, pictured below is some of the processors that were in the videos:

Recognize that outfit? Yeah. Kind of disturbing when you see hundreds of people dressed like that, all carrying torches, coming down the street. They all also had floats. Not the floats like we are used to, but these mamouth, candle-covered, gold plated works of art. And they're man-powered, not car-powered. In the videos, you'll see that the float looks like it's walking. There are probably about 10 guys under there carrying it. They go a few steps, then put it down, then go again, then put it down. Then replacements come in and they switch out. Unbelievable. Here's a pic of a crazy float -- you can actually see the incense in the air. Thought it was going to start on fire:

Here's another one with the guys in the shrouds in front of it. They all wore black for this procession. The guys with the white head wraps are the ones that carry the float -- they were walking up to replace the current carriers. The crowds that formed for these things were almost as unbelievable as the processions, and it made getting around the city nearly impossible. If a procession blocks your path, you can't cross it, you have to go around. For the pictures above, the 2YG and I raced through the city, through crowds, and somehow got to the front before the crowd I'm about to show formed behind us. Yup. Pretty much front row. For the procession in the video clips, we were in Starbucks warming up, heard it coming down the street, ran outside so we wouldn't get trapped on the wrong side of the city, and got in the front row. We were so close, the police were pushing us back. We were so close, we touched the float (If you listen close, you can hear the 2YG exclaiming as she touched it).

And now the videos. I don't really need to say anymore. If this doesn't make your hair stand on end, I don't know what will. For all you music folks out there, can you imagine playing that trumpet part for 12 hours, in that kind of cold? Amazing. You could tell their lips were having trouble. Enjoy!