Easter week and religious celebrations

Twenty six different religious brotherhoods parade through the streets during Easter Week in Cabra. They represent centuries of art and tradition, with symbols that live on year after year: Jews and Romans, drums and cornets, the unmistakeable sound of the long trumpets called añafiles or abejorros heralding the arrival of the pasos bearing the images of Christ and the Virgin Mary, the sound of the “Rompevelos” in the early hours of Good Friday, the unique tone and words of saetas as sung by the people of Cabra, the craftsmanship of some of the finest religious imagemakers from the 17th and 18th centuries manifested in works of enormous artistic and devotional significance…

A whole gamut of emotions pervades the city’s streets with respect and solemnity.
Throughout the year, the chapel of La Virgen de la Sierra is the venue for a series of romerías, or religious pilgrimages. These include the unique Romería Nacional de los Gitanos (National Gypsy Pilgrimage) in May, when gypsies and non-gypsies come together to honour the “Majarí” in an explosion of joy and devotion; the “Baja”, on 4th September, in which the image of the Virgin is carried from the chapel to the village; and the Romería del Costalero (the Costaleros’ Pilgrimage, costaleros referring to the men who carry the platforms bearing religious images on their shoulders in processions). In this last pilgrimage, which takes place on the first Sunday in October, the Virgin is carried back to Her chapel.