In 2024, Holy Week will be celebrated between 24 and 31 March. Easter celebrations are very different in the north and south of Spain. In the north, the processions in Zamora stand out; in the south, those in Seville are well known. Spain is a good destination for spring holidays and many cities, including Astorga, celebrate the traditional Holy Week.
How is Holy Week celebrated in Spain?
Spain’s cofradías (confraternities) have a remarkable collection of religious-themed images and sculptures (known as pasos) that are carried in procession during Holy Week. The aim of these processions is to represent the most significant scenes from the Passion of Christ, and the members of the brotherhoods accompany the images in traditional costumes. Each confraternity has its own colours and characteristics, which makes them easily distinguishable. Some of the most popular processions take place at night. There are Easter music groups that play marches typical of this time of year and which are very popular.
Where to celebrate Holy Week in Spain?
The regions of Andalusia in the south and León in the north are famous for their Holy Week celebrations. Holy Week in Seville, Andalusia, is probably the best known. Its processions and events attract thousands of faithful and tourists every year. In the north, the most impressive Holy Week takes place in Zamora, which stands out for the solemnity of its processions. The Friday night procession in Zamora, known as the Friday of Sorrows, has remained practically unchanged since the Middle Ages.
Astorga is a small town of 10,000 inhabitants, with a Holy Week in which more than a third of the population takes to the streets to take part in the various processions. It’s a different Holy Week from the larger, more well-known ones, which allows you to enjoy the traditional processions and gastronomy of these dates without the overcrowding that other Holy Week celebrations have experienced in recent years. Astorga is an hour and twenty minutes by car from Zamora.
The most important processions in Astorga’s Easter Week programme are the following:
- Procession of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday, 24th March).
- Procession of Silence (Maundy Thursday, 28 March)
- Procession of the Encounter (Good Friday, 29 March)
- Procession of Solitude (Good Friday, 29 March)
- Jubilant Procession of the Risen Christ (Easter Sunday, 31 March)
The most important sculptures of the city can be seen in these processions, carried by the brotherhoods with their characteristic hoods.