Semana Santa

Spanish online reading and listening practice - level B1/B2

This reading and listening exercise is about the Spanish religious celebration of Semana Santa in Seville. This is suitable for level B1/B2 Spanish students.

Background

Like many Catholic countries, Easter is a very special celebration in Spain; it's not just a holiday weekend, it's called Semana Santa - Holy Week. Every town has special Easter processions, but perhaps the most famous are the ones that take place in Seville. For Seville this celebration is second only to that of the Feria de Abril about which more very soon! The particularity of Seville's Holy Week are the floats, called pasos, that carry wooden figures representing the Passion of Christ. These pasos are carried by members of the church brotherhoods, known as cofradías. These are accompanied by Nazarenes, the penitents in the highly recognisable pointy hats with eye holes. The processions take place from Domingo de Palma (Palm Sunday), till the morning of Domingo de Resurrección (Easter Sunday). However, the climax of the week is Jueves Santo, Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, when all the processions aim to arrive at the cathedral at dawn of Viernes Santo (Good Friday). This event is known as the madrugada. Depending on how far away the home church of each cofradía is from the cathedral, the procession can last anywhere between 4 and 14 hours! Here's a video to give you an idea of what happens, but the exercise is in the exercise section below.

Grammar

This reader has a particular focus on the use of the passive voice, see these two lessons:

• Forming passive sentences with se
• Forming the passive voice with ser + participle (+ por)

Exercise: Semana Santa

The bilingual article below was written and recorded by Kwiziq's Spanish expert, the super Sevillana Inma Sánchez. Click play to listen to the audio. You can read the transcript at the same time or after. Click any phrase for the translation and links to related grammar lessons which you can add to your Kwiziq notebook to practise later.

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