Holy Week in city of León, a city in Northern Spain, Christians like to go out and drink something they call "matar judíos" or "kill Jews." A Spanish medieval historian says the tradition does stem from anti-Jewish violence, but it was over debt, not a "Christian motive."
That's not how it works.
I studied in Spain in college (Seville) and Holy Week totally freaked me out. The KKK-style hoods! The self-flagellation! The extreme Marian devotion (every neighborhood had its own blessed virgin they'd parade around in the streets). It was all a lot for this Unitarian kid.
But Feria the following week is incredible! I didn't really grow up around a lot of Catholics and I hadn't understood the pray hard / party hard vibes until Spain.
I lived in Sevilla for a year as a Canadian Jewish kid (very early 1980s), and Holy Week was the WEIRDEST but also most fascinating thing to me. I didn't know why it was holy, I had only the haziest clue who the people in the statues were or what the whole deal was with carrying them around ... BUT
there were churros and AMAZING hot chocolate, and hilariously terrible marching bands, and all the kids played this game of darting out in front of the guys with the giant candles to catch the wax drops on balls of aluminum foil. Some kids had GIANT wax balls and were suitably admired. The hoods ...
One of the things Nirenberg emphasizes in the chapter I use to frame the discussion is the "ludic" nature of a lot of the ritual antisemitic actions in medieval Spain. Literally referred to as "joch" or game in texts.
Spain has not really taken on board its past. Whether the Jewish issue outlined here, the Moors and Christians "celebrations" or a near total avoidance of its role in the slave trade. History stops/starts with the Civil War which is still a political footballl.
