The pilgrim route of the Hermandad de Triana de Sevilla to El Rocio, Huelva Province, Andalusia, Spain...El Rocio follows on from Semana Santa - Easter week and the various spring ferias, of which Seville's Feria de Abril (April) is the biggest. The processions to the (Hermitage) Hermita de El Rocío, at Pentecost, is the most famous (Romeria) pilgrimage in the Andalusian region, attracting nearly a million people from across Andalusia, Spain and the world. The cult started off in the 13th century when a statue of the virgin Mary was apparently found in a tree trunk in the Donana Park. What was first a local devotion at Pentecost by local pilgrim brotherhoods "hermandades" became by the 19th century into dozens of fraternities developed from such as Cadiz, Selville and Huelva. Some walk for several days, others travel with oxen drawn wagons or on horseback, with traction engines and all terrain vehicles, camping along the trail they take. They wear Andalusian costumes, tight breeches, boots, short jackets and frilly flamenco skirts. Many festivities, flamenco dance, laments, songs and music are combined with religious prayers. Devout pilgrims walk as a penance, keeping vows of silence. An emblem of the immaculate conception (sin peche) is carried. On the Pentecost after the stroke of midnight on the whit Sunday the virgin Mary is carried from the church through the streets of El Rocio by each hermandade to visit each brotherhood's shrine.
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