2. Easter in my family
In my family we don’t keep a Lent. We eat fish, eggs,
raisin and rise pilaf. My mother and father drink red
wine, my brother drinks coca-cola, but I drink water or
mango juice. In my family we paint eggs. My mother
loves to make decorations for Easter. We went to the
Church and lit candles.
3. Easter in Spain
Easter is a very important celebration in Spain. The whole
of Holy Week is often a holiday. A lot of Spanish Catholics
fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
On Ash Wednesday, people have a cross made of ash put
on their foreheads. This is a way of saying sorry to God.
On Palm Sunday, most people go to mass in the morning.
Children bring palm leaves and branches to be blessed by
the priest. Sometimes the branches decorated with
sweets, tinsel or have other decorations hanging from
them.
On Maundy Thursday, there is a special 'Dance of Death'
celebration in Verges, Gerona. A scary dance is
performed, at night, by men dressed as skeletons.
4. Many towns and cities in Spain celebrate Easter with processions
through the streets at night. Floats called 'tronos' are carried through
the street. Each float has incredible decorated figures representing
part of the Easter story on it. The floats and statues are often covered
in gold, silver and fine cloths. They are also decorated with lots of
fresh flowers. Forty or fifty people carry each trono on their
shoulders on the procession, which can sometimes last between four
or five hours!
In Murcia, a tronos, telling the story of the Last Supper has real food
on on the table. On Easter Sunday the twenty-six men who have
carried the table in the procession around the town sit down and eat
the food!
In southern Spain, the processions are often accompanied by drums
being beaten by the local boys. In the village of Hellin, between eight
and ten thousand drums are beaten at the processions between Holy
Wednesday and Easter Sunday.The most famous and biggest
processions are held in Seville. Each one is organised by 'Co-fradias',
or 'The Brotherhoods'. The Co-fradias try to put on the biggest and
best procession and there is a lot of competition among them as to
who has done so.
