useless-catalanfacts:The Holy Week is coming up, so I will explain The PassionThe Passion (La Passi&

useless-catalanfacts:The Holy Week is coming up, so I will explain The PassionThe Passion (La Passió, in Catalan) is a theatre play performed by non-professionals in some towns of Catalonia during the Holy Week, which explains the last years of Christ’s life. The most important ones are in Esparraguera and Olesa de Montserrat.This performance is very special for different reasons.First, because of its historical significance. The oldest written document we have that references this play was written in 1530 in Olesa de Montserrat. It was very important because it was performed in the people’s language (Catalan) instead of Latin, and because it was performed by townspeople with no involvement of the church. This gave the people a lot of power to the people, who could explain the life of Christ however they wanted, and it made the Church very nervous. For this reason, the Church tried to control it through different strategies (infiltrating the people, forcing them to represent it inside a church) and finally the Church banned it. But through all this attempts of control, the theatre continued with its popular characteristics and with great quality.It’s also special because of its involvement. Every year, around 500 people are on stage. And in 1996, Olesa beat the world record of most actors and actresses on a stage: 729! And that’s without counting everyone else involved who makes it possible: the orchestra, the choir, the make-up artists, the taylors, the ones who work with the lights and the curtain, etc. And yep, a real mule for Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem. For this reason, both towns have built two of the biggest stages in Europe.And, as we said before, everyone in the town gets involved somehow. No matter what your religious afiliation is (nowadays most young people are atheist), you can participate. It’s represented every year around the days of the Holy Week, and it’s watched by thousands of people: Esparreguera’s alone is watched by about 15,000 people each year!But if you plan to go watch them, you should know that Esparreguera’s Passion lasts more than 5 hours! But if you prefer something a bit shorter, Olesa’s one lasts for around 3 hours, and now they have English and Spanish subtitles. -- source link

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