Boys in the Hood

Easter, a holiday celebrated with colored eggs and chocolate bunnies, isn't the somber Christian festival it once was. But tradition lives on in Seville, Spain, where Holy Week is dominated by cross-bearing penitents and processions of 300-year-old, immaculately decorated pasos, or floats, borne on the shoulders of worshippers. For seven days and nights, the narrow streets of old Seville are traversed by more than 120 processions, each led by a group of hooded devotees known as Nazarenos. The floats, which take weeks to prepare and often weigh several tons each, display biblical figures or saints (notably La Virgen Macarena, the patron saint of bullfighters) festooned with flowers, lace and candles. The floats are carried through the night to mesmerizing drum beats and short bursts of melancholic flamenco from brass bands marching alongside. The processions start on Palm Sunday and continue through Easter Sunday. To join the festivities, start at the Gothic Seville Cathedral (built between 1401 and 1517) in the city center, follow the crowds and save the Easter eggs for later.