Up to this moment, for one reason or another, the peculiar way of celebrating the Holy Week in different towns of Región de Murcia has been pointed out.…

Up to this moment, for one reason or another, the peculiar way of celebrating the Holy Week in different towns of Región de Murcia has been pointed out. But when it comes to Lorca, we need to speak of uniqueness: something you never saw before. It is a world divided into two parts. Blancos -the "White" ones- or Azules -the "Blue" ones-. Zeal and passion which are sung, shouted, shown as distinctive features are usually shown; circles of people outside the Churches where the Azules' Dolorosa Virgin and the Blancos' Amargura Virgin are: circles of people where throats cheer each other, warming up by trying to pronounce the longest and strongest "¡viva!".

There is no average term in Lorca. Furthermore, the entrenchment of Blancos and Azules goes beyond the belief at this time of the year. It has more to do with roots and custom, with things you have lived through. It is a town vibrating in two halves but in unison. Serenades, "salves" and marches in order to collect both groups' flags are reasons enough for the visitor to feel every second that he is part of a collective enthusiasm where nobody is a foreigner. Lorca's Holy Week is as intense as an energy pill. It has not just religious intention, but also secular expression, wisdom and the experience of having represented episodes from the Bible and the Passion for more than a century, by uniting different historical civilisations with recent and present ones. That is why Lorca's Viernes Santo -Holy Friday-, the greatest and most overwhelming one among those celebrated these days, leaves nobody indifferent. In Lorca's main road, by means of amazing parades, you will experience many episodes recalling Asiria, Babylon, Greece, Egypt and Israel, as well as prophets, emperors or kings, all of that in a baroque sense of aesthetics and with a great display of imagination that will fascinate you and will end up seducing you.

It is important to attract the visitor's attention towards the magnificent embroideries which are shown during the parade: authentic popular jewels that have been woven with care, in silence, secretly, in the way big companies hush up their scientific progress. The hands of Lorca's embroiderers, together with their gold, silk and fine fabric work are sought-after goods, the results of which -shown on banners, capes and different ornaments- make the public spontaneously applaud from their stands, appreciating throughout the route their effort and beauty.

And that's not all. After seeing the cavalry, the groups marching, the carriages and chariots, the pirouettes and pesades performed before thousands of spectators, the real collective ecstasy arrives: it is the moment of the stroll of Virgen de los Dolores and Virgen de la Amargura's thrones before Lorca's people. The excitement arises unexpectedly. Lorca is a clamour, Lorca glows. Everyone applauding his or her own venerated image, but showing a wonderful respect for the opposing side's image that demonstrates that here, every year and for a long time, one of the most sublime moments for everybody's senses takes place.