It has been 13 years since the rain did not prevent the brotherhoods of Seville’s Madrugá from taking to the streets, the night in which all the adjectives for the virgins and Christs of a city where, one by one, six brotherhoods have gone, are exhausted. announcing that, out of caution, they would not go out in procession. It is true that when Esperanza de Triana announced that it would not go out, shortly before 11:30 p.m., it was not raining in the city and there were two hours left to put the brotherhood on the street, but up to four different meteorological reports advised leaving both the patrimonial capital without going out like the human of this and the other brotherhoods.
There is an unwritten rule during Holy Week in Seville, which dictates that if it rains in Huelva, that rain will end in the city in less than an hour, and that rule was strictly followed, along with all the signs that warned that the water It would arrive sooner or later.
After the announcement of the brotherhood of the Triana neighborhood, Esperanza Macarena did the same, which had to have started its tour at 00:00, and then El Silencio, leaving at 1:00, Gran Poder (1:30), Los Gitanos, with departure at 2.30, and El Calvario, which had to leave at 4.00.
The eldest brother of the Macarena Brotherhood, José Antonio Fernández Cabrero, was one of those who had to inform the brothers gathered in his temple of the decision, and then tell journalists that it was the most logical thing to do considering what that the sky announced: “we have asked so much for rain, that it has come true,” it said.
“In this difficult decision, the Governing Board has prioritized the care of the very large body of Nazarenes of the brotherhood,” stated a statement from the brotherhood on its social networks, while on the other bank of the Guadalquivir, the elder brother of Esperanza de Triana, Sergio Sopeña, pointed out that suspending the tour had been “a hard, painful, but at the same time easy decision, after consulting four different meteorological reports.”
However, he has called on the brothers to live these moments fleeing from lamentations, remembering that “the pandemic, among other things, taught us to approach what is truly important about Holy Week.” And that call has been translated into an image that has been seen in all the temples that have been left without processions, with hundreds of people stationed at their doors to see their titular saints inside, since they have not been able to see them in streets.
In the Plaza de San Lorenzo, which has been left without seeing the Great Power, the devotees remained standing in the hope of saying goodbye to him, while the dozens of chairs placed hours before were collected to see the exit up close.
The temples, of course, will open this Friday so that whoever wants can enter to see the images, although during this morning they keep their doors open for several hours, due to the number of people wanting to see the steps up close and were not resigned to leaving. sleep without seeing them. “We Sevillians cry today in self-defense,” brother journalist Víctor García-Rayo summarized the situation. And he cried, yes, in the form of rain.
Seville has not been left without Madrugá since 2011, although 2004 was very eventful due to the rain, and only Esperanza de Triana was able to finish its journey, and the night of April 14, 1995 remains in the memories of the brothers, when the two hopes had to take shelter from the rain in the Cathedral and spent several hours together under the same roof.
