# KKK-style costumes in Seville religious procession **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2002, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510 "2002-10-30T07:09:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/1 "2002-10-30T07:09:29Z")
On an old PBS television program late the other night, I saw footage of a procession of religious icons being carried through the streets of Seville, Spain. One group of people in the procession was wearing robes and hoods reminiscent of those worn by members of the KKK, but with taller hoods. I found [this picture](http://www.phototravels.com/content/escape/Zooms/CH23%20PG151%20IM%200.html) with Google images. What’s the story here? Who are these people, and how long have they been wearing costumes like this? I find it hard to believe the anti-Catholic KKK would borrow the design from the Seville group, or vice versa. Is the resemblance pure coincidence or was there a common origin for both? ---
**Author:** ![StPaul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58f4c7/32.png) [@StPaul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StPaul)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/2 "2002-10-30T08:28:47Z")
There was a south-western indian tribe whose favorite symbol was a swastika. Now the ghosts of those Indians have to watch us tromp through museums, point at indian displays, and say “Hey look, those Indians were Nazis!” This is the fate of all ancient peoples that did not have the good sense to pick clothing and symbols wouldn’t later be used by this or that hateful group now. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/3 "2002-10-30T11:43:08Z")
As I understand it, this is the Semana Santa (Holy Week), festival that takes place throughout Spain in the run up to Easter, but especially in Seville. The procession of penitents called Nazarenos reenact the stages of Christ’s passion, and technically the hoods are worn to protect the identity of the sinners. They’ve been worn since the C16[sup]th[/sup] (as can be seen in paintings such [as this one by Francisco Goya](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/G/goya/goya_procession.jpg.html) for instance). They certainly weren’t inspired by the KKK costumes. I don’t know whether **StPaul** is talking about native Americans, but the swastika has been used as a good luck symbol in India for centuries, and the Nazis took their device from that use. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/4 "2002-10-30T13:53:42Z")
The outfits of the _cofradías de penitentes_ share many details with to the _sambenito_, the outfit of those processed by the Inquisition(_). An overcloak in an identifying color and a matching tall dunce cap has a history, in Spain, as the outfit of a person expiating misconduct all the way to the 1500s and maybe earlier. In the case of the penitentes, the cowl conceals their individual identities so as to make them all equal within the cofradía and emphasize that “we’re all sinners” – as opposed to the regular sambenito which exposed the heretic – but the colors and height make sure that the group itself is visible in the procession. (_)(Yes, technically this means that it’s originally the outfit of the people that are going to _be_ abused, rather than the abusers.) AFAICT, pictures from the time of Reconstruction and Bedford Forrest’s original Klan show them wearing just any old kind of hood/cowl. The all-white, pointy-hatted version of the KKK outfit seems to have been really popularized by Griffith’s _Birth of a Nation_ because it looked good on film, and _then_ life imitated art. ---
**Author:** ![Offcourse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@Offcourse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Offcourse)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/5 "2002-10-31T10:44:20Z")
> [@](#): > > swastika has been used as a good luck symbol in India for centuries, and the Nazis took their device from that use Actually, the nazis reversed the original swastika. (the word itself arises from the sanskrit root svasta) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/6 "2002-10-31T17:44:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Offcourse \* > Actually, the nazis reversed the original swastika. (the word itself arises from the sanskrit root svasta) This is a common claim but doesn’t really seem to be correct. According to [SYMBOLS.com](http://www.symbols.com), the [clockwise-angled swastika](http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/15/151.html) has a long pre-Hitler history of being used in benign or positive ways: > [@](#): > > There is some confusion as to whether the clockwise (from the centre) angled swastika, [PICTURE], or the countercockwise angled variation, [PICTURE], is the sign with the most positive meaning. Both types have appeared in many different contexts, except when the sign is used as an official or national symbol, in which case [the clockwise-angled]\* is always preferred. The instances of use of [the clockwise-angled] are by far more numerous than those of [the counter-clockwise-angled]. \*i.e., the one that looks more like the Nazi emblem – MEB. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/7 "2002-10-31T21:29:27Z")
Cecil debunks the “reversed symbol” theory: [Was the swastika actually an old Native American symbol?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_156.html) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kkk-style-costumes-in-seville-religious-procession/134510/8 "2002-11-03T17:19:53Z")
We chatted about this a while ago: [What is the origin of those Ku Klux Klanish costumes seen in religious processions?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112675)