Easter time this year reminds me of my time in Sevilla during la Semana Santa, the holy week preceding Easter. One of the most culturally different things there was the uniform worn by the parading brotherhood members. The historical tradition is that groups of men march from their churches to the cathedral in Sevilla to receive penance for sinners. They wear costumes made to anonymize themselves so that the people cannot recognize them individually- they wear coned headpieces to disguise their height and they cover face to further obfuscate their individual identities. The colors of the uniforms denote which brotherhood they represent. The most bizarre thing, as an American, is that these uniforms served as the inspiration for those used by the Ku Klux Klan. We regard these cloaks subconsciously as iniquitous, yet their origins in Sevilla are based on piety and forgiveness.
