Holy Week and Easter are important Christian holidays celebrated in Spain. Holy Week occurs before Easter and involves solemn street processions each evening where people carry statues of saints on platforms. The processions end on Easter Sunday with ringing bells and celebrations. During Lent and Holy Week, Catholic Spaniards abstain from eating meat and instead eat dishes like potajes and torrijas. The processions and traditions of Holy Week are celebrated more intensely in Spain than other European countries.

1. LENT, HOLY WEEK and EASTER
IN SPAINby Cristina Morón and Antonio Mateo

2. What’s Easter?
 Easter is a Christian feast and holiday
celebrating the resurrection of Jesus
Christ on the third day after his crucifixion
at Calvary as described in the New
Testament. Easter is preceded by Lent, a
forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and
penance. The last week of Lent is called
Holy Week.

3. What’s Easter?
 Easter is followed by a fifty-day
period called the Easter
Season, ending with Pentecost
Sunday. The First Council of
Nicaea established the date of
Easter as the first Sunday after
the full moon (the Paschal Full
Moon) following the northern
hemisphere's vernal equinox.
 The date of Easter usually varies
between 22 March and 25 April.

4. Theological significance
 The New Testament
teaches that the
resurrection of Jesus,
which Easter celebrates, is
a foundation of the
Christian faith. The
resurrection established
Jesus as the powerful Son
of God.

5. Holy Week in Spain
 Spain celebrates the Holy
Week much more than most
European countries. During
the Holy Week, street
processions are organised in
most Spanish towns each
evening, from Palm Sunday
to Easter Sunday.  Here the virgin of “La Pollinica”, a typical
throne of Málaga

6. Holy Week in Spain
 People carry statues of saints,
decorated with special banners
and flowers, on wooden
platforms, in an atmosphere of
mourning - which can seem
quite oppressive to onlookers.
The Holy Week processions
end with Easter Sunday, a day
full of light and colour when
church and cathedral bells are
heard ringing throughout the
country.

7. Nazarenos
 In some of the processions,
marchers wear clothes which
are meant to depict the
Nazarenos, people from
Nazareth. The religious
fraternities and brotherhoods
are responsable for carrying
the statues and organising
the penitents and musicians.
The Nazarenos follow the
people who carry the floats
bearing sculptures and
models of biblical scenes.

8. Thrones
Here is another
trhone called “La
Cena” in Málaga.

9. Holy Week in Spain
 The people who carry the weight of
the floats are called "costaleros" and
are expected to carry these
"thrones" with solemnity and grace.
They use a small cushion ("costal")
to protect themselves from getting
sores from the wood rubbing against
their skin during the long
processions.

10. Holy Week in Málaga

11. Holy Week Processions in Málaga

12. Holy Week Processions in Málaga

13. Typicals thrones of Andalucía
El Cautivo La Macarena

14. LENT AND EASTER FOOD
ABSTINENCE POTAJES AND TORRIJAS
This is a period of
abstinence: Catholic
people won´t eat meat
during Lent and the Holy
Week.
That is the reason why
Easter meals and cakes are
remarkable for being
tasteful and enriched with
proteins.