On first impression, the processions might seem repetitive, but the differences soon become clear. The day of the week makes an important difference. For example, Thursday's processions tend to be good-natured, if not high-spirited, while Good Friday's are solemn to the point of mournfulness.

Except in small towns or villages, the figures representing the scenes on the pasos are life-sized and very lifelike. Many are very old and valuable, made by master craftsmen such as Juan de Mena, Martinez Montaner and J. Antonio Illanes. In essence, the processions represent the Easter Passion, the story between the last supper and the resurrection, and the pasos are scenes with up to seven or eight figures, depicting one of the events in the story. So a paso with a figure of Christ, e.g., a Descendimiento, Christ being taken down from the cross, usually takes the lead, while one of the various Virgin Marys brings up the rear. A paso may have seven or eight figures. Other pasos include the Oración en el Huerto (prayer in the garden), San Pedro Arrepentido (Saint Peter repenting), the Ecce-Homo (when Pontius Pilot shows Christ to the people), the Flagelación (flagellation), and so on. The Virgins are received like spiritual beauty queens: each has a different face, and crowds have their favourites. A popular Virgin, especially the Macarena,  is received with the cry of "guapa" (lit. "beautiful" and pronounced almost like "whopper").

These pasos are the property of hermandades or cofradías, brotherhoods, a remnant of the mediaeval guilds. They usually take their names from the first paso they acquired when they were formed, mostly in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Being a member of a cofradía used to mean you were at least a pillar of society and very possibly a rich man, though now they have a broader base. The largest cofradía in Seville, the Gran Poder, has over 2,000 members and its procession, after midnight on Good Friday, takes hours to pass a single spot.