EASTER, Semana Santa in Benidorm

EASTER (Semana Santa) in Benidorm

Easter (Semana Santa) in Benidorm, Easter is a highly religious festival and is recognised and commemorated in every city, town and village throughout Spain, and is as important as Christmas.

Benidorm Fiesta Dates for 2023

General information about Semana Santa

Easter is a very important time for Spanish families, so many take time off work and travel back to their home towns to spend time with their loved ones. 

The processions begin on Palm Sunday the week before Easter, followed by those on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While things start off solemn, once Christ is Resurrected, the tense atmosphere changes and on Easter Sunday the solemn processions are replaced by more colourful, cheerful parades with floats being decorated with floral bouquets, and lots of music supplied by brass bands. This is the time to eat, drink and dance in the streets.

The varias cofradias and hermandads, (brotherhoods) will have been preparing and practicing for months for their displays of piety and devotion to God in Semana Santa, Holy Week.

The religious statues from the churches are brought out on floats and carried aloft by teams of 'penitentes' as they are paraded around the local streets to the sound of solemn marching music – the participants copy the gait of the shackled Christ.

During the processions you will see people wearing (penitents) pointed hoods, which to us look like a variation of the Klu Klux Klan, these outfits date well before the days of the KKK decided to wear them and date back to 1521.  These outfits are worn as a penance for their sins, some will be walking barefoot and even chained.  There are generally 2 floats one with the statue of the virgin Mary and the other with Jesus on the cross.  It is seen as a real honour to be asked to help carry these very heavy and large floats.  

The brotherhoods walk in silence and are joined by mourners – women dressed in black, with veiled faces, the mourners symbolise the mourning of the death of Christ and they carry lit candles, this creates a lot of melted wax on the streets and quite often you will see the local children compete to see who can craft the biggest balls of wax.

Advertise Here

Every so often the processions come to a standstill so that the people carrying the floats can rest or change over, and when they do, you will see children bending down underneath the candles to collect the hot dripping wax and add it to their ball.

Easter, Semana Santa in Benidorm

2023 dates

April 2nd April - Palm Sunday

April 3rd - Holy Monday

April 4th- Holy Tuesday

April 5th - Holy Wednesday

April 6th - Holy Thursday

April 7th - Holy Friday/Good Friday

April 8th - Holy Saturday

April 9th - Easter Sunday

April 10th - Easter Monday

Holy Week Processions 2023 in Benidorm (more detailed information will follow shortly)

Palm Sunday - April 2nd. Between 11.00 and 12.00, the seven parishes of Benidorm will celebrate the Procession of Las Palmas 

11:00 - Parish Ntra. Sra. de la Almudena

11: 00 - Parish San Jaime and Santa Ana

11: 30 - San Francisco de Asís Parish

11:30 - Parish of Our Lady of Carmen

11:45 - Parish Ntra. Sra. del Mar

12: 00 - Good Shepherd Parish 

12:00 San Juan Bautista Parish

20.00 -  Procession of the Royal Brotherhood of Our Lady of Hope and Peace and Our Father Jesus of Health and Humility.

Holy Wednesday, April 5th

22.00 - Procession of Our Father Jesus Nazareno also the Convocation and Our Lady of Sorrows, Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana.

Holy Thursday, April 6th

21:00 - PROCESSION: Sacramental Brotherhood of the Holy Supper, the Christ of Forgiveness and the Good Death and the Virgin of Sorrows Parish of Our Lady of Almudena

21:00 - PROCESSION: Brotherhood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in his agony on the Mount of Olives. San Juan Bautista Parish.

Photos - Procession of Silence 2022

GOOD FRIDAY

07:00 - Via Crucis, Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana.

20:30 - Solemn General and Holy Burial procession.  Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana

Photos from 2022 - The procession of the Holy Burial of the Coffradia of Our Lady of Pain, in which all the cofradias and brotherhood of Benidorm participated.

Easter Sunday 

08:00  - The "Ambaixada de l'Àngel "Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana.

Holy Week in Benidorm, conclude on Easter Sunday where the thrones of the Lord and the Virgin take to the streets from the church of San Jaime in the procession of the Encounter..

THE WEATHER

Temperature 15°C 59°F

Low Temperature 10°C 51°F

High Temperature 20°C 68°F

Sunshine Hours 10 hrs

Chance of Sunny Day 50 %

Rainfall 32mm

Rainfall days 8 days

Chance of Rain 20 %

Chance of Cloudy Day 10 %

Sea Temperature 16°C 61°F

Chance of Windy Day 8 %

EASTER FOOD

Chocolate eggs are not associated with Easter in Spain although you will see some available in the supermarkets.

The Spanish celebrate with a round sweet bread called Mona de Pascua, this is sprinkled with sugar and topped with a hard boiled egg. These are eaten on Easter Monday and are a sign of the end of lent, when the whole family will go out for a picnic in the country.

Some families now prefer the more modern method of preparing this cake which involves chocolate and a lot of vibrant colours and cakes this version would be topped with nuts, candied fruits, or chocolate, with chocolate eggs (instead of the hard boiled) with colourful feathers and figurines of baby chicks!

Another favourite to be served during Easter are Torrijas, which are bread, dipped in milk and egg, then fried, before being sprinkled in sugar and drenched in honey or cinnamon, this is very similar to French Toast and is also known as Spanish Bread Pudding.  Find the recipe for this tasty treat HERE

A typical family Easter Sunday dinner will generally consist of garlic soup (sopa de ajo) with a baked egg in the middle and fresh seafood.

Recipe for Mona de Pascua (Traditional)

Ingredients:

1/2 kg - Flour

75 g - Sugar

50 g - Butter

3 - Eggs

10 gr. - Salt

1 - Lemon rind, grated

50 g. - Yeast

Milk

For decoration:

Hard boiled eggs

Oil

Egg, beaten