Pascua en España

The word for 'Easter' in Spanish, is Pascua.  To say 'Happy Easter' you say 'Feliz Pascua.'

 The week leading up to Easter Sunday is called La Semana Santa.  The first day of La Semana Santa is
el Domingo de Ramos.
The word ramos means 'bouquets' and 'branches.'

On the morning of el Domingo de Ramos, (Palm Sunday),  most people go to church and remember the day when Jesús rode into Jerusalén and how the people welcomed Him by laying palm leaves on the ground for Him to walk on. 
In Spain, when you go to church on Palm Sunday you carry a palm branch or an olive branch.  
Boys carry a plain branch and girls carry one that has been decorated with ribbons and sweets.  The branches are then blessed by the priest.

During La Semana Santa, starting on el Domingo de Ramos, Spanish towns have street parades every day. 
In the processions, people carry and follow floats,
known as pasos. 
On the floats, there are statues of Jesús and La Virgen María.  The floats are also beautifully decorated with flowers, gold, silver and fine fabrics.

The heavy floats are carried by men wearing hoods and long robes.  Music and drums are played.  Everyone remembers the death of Jesús and the events leading up to His death.

Can you see the hooded men above?  There is a special name for each group of these hooded men ; they are called
una confradía, which means 'a brotherhood.' 
Each man who carries the float is known as un costalero.  Often these men will be barefoot or have chains attached to their ankles, to make them more uncomfortable and to remind them of the suffering of Jesus at the time of His death.

During the processions, often you will hear people singing a special Easter song called una saeta.  It is sung without music and it has a very special sound.  It is usually sung in the open air to the statues of the procession.  The singer's voice seems to be carried for a long distance as if becoming part of the wind, for everyone to hear. 

Click HERE to watch a video of the teenage flamenco singer María Carrasco as she sings una saeta.

 On Maundy Thursday (el Jueves Santo) all the church bells are tied so that they remain silent.  They do not ring again until Easter Day.  This is in respect and remembrance of the suffering and death of Jesús. 

On el Jueves Santo, (Maundy Thursday), in the town of Verges, in Cataluña, there is a very famous event every year.  It is a skeleton dance! 
It is called La Dansa de la Mort and men dress up in skeleton costumes and dance to a drum beat. 

Photo by: Bernatff.

 On el Viernes Santo, (Good Friday), meat is not eaten. It would be very wrong to eat meat on this day in Spain. That is why dishes for this day are made with fish and vegetables. Popular foods for Good Friday in Spain are
sopa de ajo (garlic soup) and potaje de vigilia ( a stew of cod, chick peas and spinach.)

 During the period of Easter in Spain, torrijas are eaten.  These are thick slices of bread, soaked in milk and beaten egg, fried in olive oil and served with sugar or honey.

Torrijas, by jonathunder.

Another Easter food is un pestiño.  This is a plain and simple little fritter.  A flour mixture is fried in olive oil and then sprinkled with honey or sugar.  Sesame is often added to the flour mixture.

Above: un pestiño, by Ismael Olea.

 Easter week in Spain is a time of serious processions and remembering the events leading up to and including the death of Jesus. 
But, on Easter Day (El Domingo de Resurrección) it is a day of happiness and celebration because on this day the Resurrection of Jesus is remembered.  

A popular cake of celebration to eat on Easter Day  is called La Mona de Pascua.  It is decorated with coloured feathers and big chocolate figurines. 
Cake shops compete to see who can make the most impressive monas to place in their shop windows! 
Nowadays, the monas are so ambitious and wonderful, that they even talk about them on the television news!  Some monas look like sculptures carved out of chocolate.
  ¡Ñam ñam!
Traditionally, godparents give una mona to their godchild as a gift for Easter Day.

Photo above of una mona, by J. Gomá.  Can you see the chocolate figurine on top of the cake?

Photo above: another mona, by Alex Castellá.

The picture above is from an old Spanish magazine (around the year 1866).  It shows a godfather (padrino) giving una mona to his godchild on Easter Day. 

During the happy days of Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, it is the tradition to eat lamb. 
Lamb, el cordero, is the traditional meat for
Easter Day in Spain. 
Paella is also popular.

Above: Paella.
On el lunes de Pascua (Easter Monday) families like to go out for the day, to parks or to the countryside, where they have a picnic. 
They make sure to take una mona with them.  For this reason, Easter Monday in Spain is very often called
el día de la mona.

There are some more traditional foods to eat in Spain at Easter:  Hornazo is a pie filled with pork, eggs and ham.  There is also a sweet version, filled with almonds, egg and aniseed.

Photo of un hornazo, by Juan Fernández.  It is decorated with an Easter cross.

 The most exciting place to visit during La Semana Santa is probably the city of Sevilla in the south of Spain. 
Its processions are the most famous and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors.  There are fifty eight processions during the week and approximately fifty thousand people dress up in the style of Jesus' clothes (these people are called nazarenos.)  As a result of all this activity, the city becomes full and overcrowded, but it is a very exciting and interesting time to be there!

¡Feliz Pascua de Resurrección!


Here are some more useful words for Easter:
la iglesia - the church
La Cruz - The Cross
La Crucifixión - The Crucifixion
la misa - the Mass
la oración - the prayer
el rezo - the prayer
el huevo - the egg
el chocolate - the chocolate

(For a Spanish Easter quiz, click HERE.)