PREGÓN - HOLY WEEK -VILLAFÁFILA 2013

Mr. ULPIANO PAINTED CALDERO

First of all I want to thank Elías for these words towards me.

Secondly, an affectionate greeting to our parish priest D. Agapito, to the Mayor and to the Pro Semana Santa Board for having proposed me to pronounce the Proclamation of Holy Week this year.

Honor that I accept proudly, because everything that is done for our people, is done for oneself.

I would like to be brief, so as not to tire you, but allow me to unravel before you my experiences that, since I was a child, have been renewed every year when spring arrives, the acts of our Religion.

It is true that it is not Zamora, Valladolid, Seville, Malaga or so many cities that, with their pageantry, dress up the religious Week of Christianity.

But it is also true that we have processions and images worthy of attracting all of us who live outside the town, much of the year.

A contemporary writer says that human beings move from one place to another, but the landscape of our roots is what we have left. And our roots are OUR PEOPLE.

Forgive me that before continuing I remember my parents and my brother Francisco at this time. And to those people who were part of Villafáfila for many years and who influenced me:

D. Francisco Lera, parish priest.

To the teachers, mainly D. Laurentino.

D. Daniel Fuertes, doctor, almost perpetual, humane and helpful.

And to so many others who wrote special pages in the history of our people, in the difficult years of the 20th century.

Christianity has two dates that are the center of our Faith:

The Birth and death of Jesus, which is the beginning and the end, but the culmination of our beliefs.

We all remember this week as children. And I say since childhood, because as the years go by, the most present memories are those we have from childhood.

We have arrived at the beginning of the Great Week, after leaving behind “los Compadres” and “las Comadres”, before the Carnivals and Ash Wednesday.

The children, happy to celebrate the snack with their friends, asked our mothers, only two eggs, a sausage and some money to make that "snack", which for us was a feast.

Some mother or older sister lent herself as a cook to make the tortilla and the "Ears", typical at Easter.

“Compadres” for the boys and “Comadres” for the girls.

We came out on top, because in “las Comadres”, we also tried to get invited. It depended on the friendship we had with some of the girls.

••• Today Palm Sunday , in memory of those children of Jerusalem, we walk the streets with the Laurel Bouquet .

It comes to my memory, when Mr. Cura gave us the Laurel to the boys and the Olivo to the girls and we were envious because our bouquet was small compared to those of the "Banco de la Justicia", where the Mayor, the Judge , the Councilors and the Civil Guard.

At the end of the procession, at the door of the Church they sang the "Pueri Hebreorum" and with the Cross, the Pastor knocked on the door, and once it was open we entered to finish the ceremony with the mass and the first Sermon of the eight, which during the Week would pronounce the Preacher and that paid the city council.

Very important on this day, it was and is, the Auction of the Saints , which will be held next.

This bid to carry this or that image was often out of pride among gangs of young people (the trumpet, Saint John) and out of devotion or promises (Jesus of Nazareth).

That is why the people came and the figure, however high or low, would be the comment. But above all, those who had made the promise to take him would be part of those who will take Jesus on Friday.

••• On Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday, the General Confessions took place .

Several confessors came to forgive the sins, large or small, of the neighbors who for a whole year had not examined their faults and wanted to be at peace.

Holy Tuesday was the day of the Second Sermon or Sermon of Tears .

We children believed that we had to cry when we saw the Preacher in the Pulpit, with the crucifix in his hand, calling the faithful to Forgiveness.

It was the moment of Saint Peter's repentance for having denied Christ and that the ruling had reminded him of the Master's words at the Last Supper.

When I was a student in the Seminary, I remember that we carried the attributes of the Passion.

I carried a tray with a "Silver Rooster" and all the children noticed the rooster and I remembered the preacher of my town who indicated the tears of Saint Peter:

Cry, Pedro, your ignominy,

cry, Pedro, your sin.

The Master already told you

that the rooster would warn you

••• On Holy Wednesday , Las Tinieblas took place, where we children had a great time playing ratchets and noisemakers. It is a great day for our Holy Week, because the Procession of the Christ of Mercy takes place , where the brothers, children, young and old with their white and green robes walk the streets in silence, only disturbed by prayers, the rattle or the bell.

The brothers line up

with the villagers

mystery and sadness

of those we don't understand:

that being innocent

go to die suffering.

procession ends

and there are songs and there are prayers.

Forgive your people, Lord.

Sorry for what you've done!

This procession, which we did not know as children, today is one of the best for its recollection and because those who come from other places come to spend these days.

The late hour makes them arrive on time.

The image does not enter the Auction because the Christ of Mercy is carried by the brothers who enter the Brotherhood every year since they were little.

 And the song of the Miserere (in Latin) in a parade from the balcony of the City Hall, is still the same as it was always sung.

••• Holy Thursday takes us to the Parish Church to attend the Offices , with the transfer of the Blessed Sacrament to what we call "Monument", which we always knew in the main altar, but because it is huge and very expensive to put it there, It is placed on the altar of Angustias, more collected, but also highly decorated with flowers and lights.

At eight o'clock in the evening the procession of the "ECCE Homo" starts, an image of Christ tied to the column.

This step reminds me of Gabriel y Galán's poetry “La Pedrada”, when a child throws a stone at a executioner who whips Jesus.

-   “Why, why did you do it?

-   Because they were beating Jesus, without doing anything wrong.”

The procession enters and a few hours later, around midnight, the

Vera Cruz procession .

Those who are around my age did not know this procession, whose beautiful image returned to our streets in 2010 and the route to the old cemetery, returning through San Pedro to the Church again.

The Junta Pro Semana Santa has managed to make it part of our processions again, more than 100 years later.

This brotherhood dates back to 1700, with women brotherhoods who later invited cakes and wine. The light and blood or discipline with their clothing reminds us that we are in the days of penance.

••• That sad night of Jesus takes us to the morning of Good Friday , the central day of the week.

The Procession of the Encounter, which was and is the most beloved, because in it, together with Saint John (carried on the shoulders of young people, carved in wood), Mary and the Nazarene (Jesus).

The countenance of Jesus, a beautiful image of those who suffer since the people have always venerated it in a special way and to which they offer themselves: some to wear it and others with bare feet. All with some promise, almost always to request or thank some family health need.

Fasting tomorrow and waiting for the procession to end to have the chocolate and churros that our mother prepared for us.

That morning, some years cold, others muffled by the Sun of the incipient spring to the sound of the trumpet, we met in the Plaza Mayor (all land), after the young people had spent the night with lemonade and churros. And we listened to the Preacher, from the balcony of an old house, recounting the events of Christ on that fateful night: the Supper, the Lavatory, the Arrest, the Condemnation, the Scourging, the Denials and the abandonment of his disciples.

The children, unaware of the tragedy, would run to see Saint John, who would run to give the bad news to Mary there in a corner, at the other end of the square and together with the image of the Nazarene they would take their steps throughout the town .

Run, Juan, tell Maria

that their son has been sentenced

and they carry it with the cross

after being whipped.

Run, John, hurry up

that lead him to Calvary.

The trumpets sound,

the soldiers are coming.

Few hours left

so you can look at it!

In the last hour, the last words before dying among the thieves, with the Virgin and the pious women at the foot of the Cross, with the Jews and the soldiers before the last events.

"Consumatum est" he said and expired.

Here the Preacher told us the Sermon of the 7 Words.

A few hours later the Offices and the Adoration of the Cross.

From Golgotha ​​to the Sepulchre. The Procession of the Holy Burial comes out , with the Urn, the Virgen Dolorosa and Las Angustias.

The brotherhood formed by women who represent those who followed Jesus in Jerusalem among the crowd that shouted to crucify him. Cirineo was no longer there, nor was Veronica, on that Calle de la Amargura. These women, with their black velvet clothes, accompanied Maria in her pain.

The lights are already out;

Everything has already darkened;

the screaming is not heard

because the sky rumbled.

He warned that it was a crime,

that this man was God.

The day had been long and longer for a mother who was waiting for Sunday, since she had not been able to bury her son, because on Saturday nothing could be done among the Jews.

••• That is why on Saturday , a long day of waiting, the women of Villafáfila want to accompany the Virgen de la Soledad. That she is not alone. That they, also dressed in mourning and with the light that guides them, point the way through our streets, so that the wait is more bearable.

The women are praying

and they are dressed in black,

with a light in his hands,

in the night a thousand lights.

They cry with her their sorrows

feel your grief!

Without ending the day, at midnight, the Vigil will come, so that there may be another light and new water, a symbol of hope.

••• The new day is dawning; It is Sunday and as Christ had said, he has risen.

The sadness of Friday will change into joy. The Virgin leaves, still in mourning, to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento and the Savior will be there to meet , Mother and Son in their happy encounter.

take off her black dress

and put a white one on it;

That is no longer in the Sepulchre,

that Christ is risen!

Hallelujah! There are other songs that sound in the procession accompanied by the ringing of bells and with the Mass on Sunday of Glory the essence of our Creed ends.

Penance and fasting were passed. Again the young people forgot their Sunday strolls through the square and returned to the dance.

It's already Easter; it is already spring; again life begins to flourish.

This is Holy Week 2013, but more will come, many more and they will all have this flavor of our Town, where we will all participate and rejoice with our traditions, which have been those of our ancestors and we will leave them to our grandchildren.

I, as Town Crier, invite you to come to our Town whenever you can, because here is our root, that of the grandparents and parents who instilled in us the religious spirit that the town of Villafáfila always had.

To those who are always here and to those of us who live abroad, may we be one people these days.

Let the bells of the tower bring us together to show us that we are a family.

Thank you very much.

Ulpiano Caldero Painted

Sunday, March 24, 2013, Villafáfila

Author:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

Text:

Mr. Ulpiano Caldero Pintado.

Town crier of Holy Week 2013.

Photography:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

Transcription and montage:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

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All text and photography has been authorized for storage, treatment, work, transcription and assembly to José Luis Domínguez Martínez, its dissemination on villafafila.net, and any other means that is authorized.