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 2024
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.
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
2024 dates
March 24th - Palm Sunday
March 29th - Holy Friday/Good Friday - RED DAY (Public Holiday)
March 31st - Easter Sunday
April 1st - Easter Monday - RED DAY (Public Holiday)
Schedule for the main Events 2024
Palm Sunday 24th March
Between 10:00 and 12:00 hours. PROCESSION OF RAMOS and Holy Mass in each of the parishes.
20:00 - PROCESSION OF THE ROYAL BROTHERHOOD OF NTRA. MRS. HOPE AND PEACE . Station of Penance with Our Father Jesus of Health and Humility and Our Lady . Mrs. of La Esperanza and La Paz . Departure: Good Shepherd Parish. Itinerary: Puig Campana, Roldán, Almendros, Limones, Maravall, Apolo XI, Jazmín, Plaza de España, Puig Campana, ending inside the Church.
Holy Wednesday March 27th
22:00 - PROCESSION OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF OUR FATHER JESUS NAZARENO . Departure from the Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana. Itinerary: Plaza de San Jaime, Mayor, Alameda, Plaza de la Cruz, Ruzafa, La Biga, Tomás Ortuño, Apolo XI, Almendros, Paseo de la Carretera, Santa Faz and Plaza de Saint James.
Holy Thursday, March 28th
21:00 - PROCESSION OF SILENCE . Joint procession of the Sacramental Brotherhood of the Holy Supper , of the Brotherhood of Stmo. Christ of Forgiveness and Good Death and the Virgin of Sorrows . Departure from Our Lady of Almudena Parish. Itinerary: Ginés Cartagena, Capitán Cortés, Paseo de la Castellana, Velázquez, Acacias, Goya, Jardines, and Ginés Cartagena, ending inside the Church.
21:00 - SOLEMN PROCESSION OF THE BROTHERHOOD PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF GETSEMANI . Departure from the Parish of San Juan Bautista. Itinerary: Plaza de las Tiendas, Pajares, Mont-Benidorm, Vicente Llorca Alòs, Vinaroz, Santander, Mont-Benidorm, Pajares and Plaza de las Tiendas, ending inside the Church.
23:30 - Holy Hour and Via Crucis through the streets adjacent to the Church of San Jaime and Santa Ana.
Good Friday, March 29th
07:00 - Departure from the Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana towards Mount Calvary, where the Via Crucis and Sermon of the Seven Words take place .
20:30 - GENERAL PROCESSION OF THE HOLY BURIAL . Departure from the Parish of San Jaime and Santa Ana. All the Brotherhoods and Brotherhoods of Benidorm also participate in this Procession. Itinerary: Plaza de San Jaime, Mayor, Alameda, Los Ángeles, Pintor Lozano, Metge Pérez Martorell, Martínez Alejos, Paseo de la Carretera, Santa Faz and Plaza de San Jaime.
23:00 - Penitential Via Crucis departing from the Parish of San Juan Bautista and arriving at the Hermitage of the Virgen del Mar, at the top of Tossal de la Cala.
Easter Sunday, 31st March
08:00 - The Embassy . Departure from the Church of San Jaime and Santa Ana of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows with the thrones of the Risen Lord and the Blessed Virgin towards the Alameda, in the solemn PROCESSION OF THE MEETING .
Photo 2023 The Royal Angel
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.
*Please note the above has been translated from Spanish to English and all times can be subject to last minute changes*
Benidorm weather in March
Benidorm enjoys comfortable and relatively high air temperatures in Spring. March in Benidorm is typically the 4th coldest month and the 6th wettest month of the year.
Daytime temperature 17.7°C.
Nightly temperature - 7.4°C.
Average temperature - 12.5°C.
Daily sunshine - 7.3 hrs.
Average rainfall - 34 mm.
Rainy days - 11 days.
Sea temperature - 14.4°C.
Humidity - 65%.
Windspeed - 11.9kph.
See the Weather Page for daily updates and all other average monthly temperatures
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
Knead the flour with the sugar, eggs, salt, yeast, butter and lemon rind.
Add the milk slowly until you have a homogeneous mass that pulls away from your hands.
Let stand for 30 minutes.
Shape it into a mountain, making a depression in the top, spreading it out until it forms a crown.
Brush with oil and firmly press in the boiled eggs in their shells.
Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.
Allow to ferment for 20 minutes and bake at 170ºC for 45 minutes.