Semana Santa, or Holy Week, as I recently explained to my American students, is celebrated in Andalusia through religious processions (called pasos) that wind their way day and night through the streets of cities and towns. As with so many Spanish traditions, such as bullfighting, it’s almost impossible to convey an accurate picture of Semana Santa celebrations to anyone who has never attended one. They must be experienced rather than understood at an intellectual level.

A friend once mocked me with the caustic observation that: “We’re going to rename you Paciencia [patience].” The friend, my husband and I had returned to Seville after an afternoon in the countryside to find that the radiator in the car we had borrowed from my in-laws was hemorrhaging coolant.

Sevillanos love tradition. Most are dedicated to keeping their beloved city as it always has been. Nevertheless, despite the tenacity of Sevillanos in retaining their traditions, even Sevilla, like all cultures and the places that embody them, is changing. In one of those amazing contradictions that I continually discover here, it is in the celebration of two very traditional holidays that this change is most apparent: Christmas and Three Kings’ Day.