Holy Week. In Spain it means processions, floats, saetas, brotherhoods and entire cities organized around a calendar that is not only religious, but also cultural. In Catalonia it also means jesters, palms and palmons, family getaways and visits to emblematic places linked to the Christian tradition. Many Catalans of Andalusian origin return to their land these days to reconnect with Holy Week, which continues to have enormous strength.All this coexists with a certain intellectual contempt. Not on the part of everyone, of course. But in a large part of the political and urban progressivism, the Catholic religious tradition is usually viewed with a mixture of contempt, irony, and moral superiority. It is tolerated as a picturesque custom, an ancient remnant. Religion is questioned and its symbols are caricatured.The curious thing is that this same country that despises its traditions turns them, when April arrives, into a formidable economic machine. Renfe has scheduled three million places for this Holy Week. In many destinations, hotel reservations are close to full: Cuenca, Toledo, Andalusia, to give some examples. Tradition moves people, fills hotels, sustains restaurants, activates businesses, generates temporary employment, and gives economic meaning to many territories.Seville has even sophisticated the public management of its processions with maps, capacity control, and special mobility devices. Barcelona maintains the Fira de Rams on Rambla de Catalunya, where palms and laurel are sold. Catalan pastry shops are already exhibiting their "monas" as small works of competitive craftsmanship. All of this is real economy.The paradox deserves attention. The legacy is undervalued and then its impact on hospitality, transport, and domestic tourism is celebrated. The symbol is criticized and the box is applauded.Welcome to all this economic activity. But that is not the important thing. The important thing is that they are part of our legacy. Of a historical, cultural and moral heritage that has contributed to shaping us as a society. One may not be a believer, not practice, not share the Catholic faith and, even so, perfectly understand that one cannot live ignoring the Judeo-Christian tradition that has shaped a large part of our culture, our sensitivity, our idea of good and evil, our way of understanding life in common.Each person embraces these dates from a different place: from faith, from family emotion, from memory, from custom, or from simple inheritance. All of this is legitimate. What is poorer is to look at them with dogmatic contempt, as if they were an uncomfortable relic that is only tolerated because it makes money. They are part of us. And it would be advisable to remember this also for Easter.

Easter Week, beyond processions, masses, palms, and "monas" (cakes), displays a repertoire of vestments that we have learned to look at without seeing. Garments that, being so familiar, have ceased to seem strange to us, but which, if we pause for a moment, are profoundly unusual and far removed from any form of everyday dress. And among the mantillas with combs, the Nazarene tunics, the girdles, or the cloaks of the virgins, there is an element that stands out for its formal power and its symbolic connotations: the hood. The doors of Seville Cathedral open and the first Nazarenes begin to emerge, in a line, surrounded by an intense smell of wax and incense. Tunics, candles, and pointed hoods that rise above everything. The drums mark a dry and constant rhythm and the attendees remain expectant, in a contained silence. The faces of the Nazarenes are not seen, only their eyes, and the street, for a moment, ceases to be an everyday space to become a stage. The hood has fulfilled its function: to make individual identity disappear to give prominence to the saint being worshipped. In this way, it ensures that the wearer is seen without being recognized and allows them to enter the structure of the ritual, assuming an attitude of discipline and surrender. But what is the origin of this strange hat, which has survived centuries of history?Its origin is not, in any case, processional, but rather it was born as an instrument of public penance between the 15th and 17th centuries, in the context of the Holy Inquisition. The condemned were exhibited with sambenets — a type of tunic — and coroces — hats often conical or pointed —. Its function was clearly punitive and exemplary: to make sin visible and to humiliate the sinner. Far from pursuing anonymity, as happens today, it was about marking the body and exposing it publicly.It will be between the 17th and 18th centuries when Holy Week processions are institutionalized and penance ceases to be imposed to become voluntary. In this new context, the hood is re-signified: it comes to symbolize spiritual aspiration —with its projection towards heaven—, the assumption of religious discipline, and the centrality of the ritual over the person. But beyond its morphology, there is a question that is even more unsettling and often bewilders many visitors: what relationship does this piece have with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)?The KKK was founded in 1865, after the Civil War, as a violent reaction against the abolition of slavery and with the aim of restoring white supremacy. It deployed a regime of terror and intimidation against the African American population, and to do so it equipped itself with a deliberate aesthetic of authority and threat. Its iconography —white robe and pointed hood— draws from a mixture of imaginaries, among which are European phantasmagorical, ritual, and religious references. The formal coincidence with the hood is evident, but its meaning is radically opposite. If in the context of Holy Week anonymity expresses humility, penance, and dissolution of the self, in the case of the KKK it serves to guarantee impunity and exercise collective violence. The same operation, that of concealing identity, which can serve both to submit and to dominate.Easter Sunday brings the Holy Week to an end and, with it, the time of penance. The solemnity fades away as easily as a Nazarene takes off his hood. A few days later, in Andalusia, the calendar turns and the revelry of the April Fair makes way: colors, ruffles, moons, exposed bodies, flowers in hair, Manila shawls... The contrast is so immediate that it is difficult not to wonder to what extent what we have seen was a deep experience or a shared theatricalization. Garments that are activated and deactivated as ways of organizing bodies, time, and desire.

If Lent comes early, Palm Sunday will also come early. As soon as tomorrow. And if Palm Sunday comes so early, it means that, in fact, we are already in Holy Week. Well, now all this is hardly noticed. Yes, we still go to bless four laurel branches and someone still carries a long and straight palm branch, but, of the whole week, only Good Friday is a holiday. Saturday, which was previously called Glory and is now called Saint, is always a holiday, and Easter Monday, which people mistakenly call the “dia de la mona” (the day of the Easter cake), joins Friday and they make a festive long weekend that people take advantage of to travel, ski and, the most daring, undress and sunbathe on the beach. Before, when I was young, all of Holy Week was a holiday, more or less. Especially from Thursday onwards.

The Brotherhood of the Blood of Sagunto, which is an extraordinary name, has rejected, once again, by majority vote, the admission of women as members of the brotherhoodThe Spanish government, ever eager, pressured to make it a mixed-gender event, but alas, 267 members of the brotherhood voted against it. 114 voted in favor. Rejected, just like in 2022. This time, however, a threat loomed: the withdrawal of the National Tourist Interest designation.

The Vívid Festival, dedicated to wine tourism on the Costa Brava, celebrates its 13th edition this April with seventy activities and events that connect wine, nature, active wine tourism, and wellness. Walks through vineyards, guided tours, yoga, and sensory experiences coexist with unique tastings and gastronomic activities in a dynamic and experiential program. The program can be found at [website address missing]. https://vivid.costabrava.org/ . Among the many proposals, we highlight the following:

After the rainiest winter in the last thirty years, with the arrival of spring there is a desire to make outdoor plans. Many people are already looking forward to Easter holidays to go away, go on excursions, enjoy nature or go out with friends and family. Therefore, the question is unavoidable: what will the weather be like this year for Easter? Will it rain or not? On dates like these, the weather acquires a very important weight, because many people make one plan or another depending on the weather forecast.

Tomorrow, March begins. This means that today is the last day of February, the shortest month of the year. March has a bad reputation, surely because of that famous saying that goes, "March, March, takes the old woman to the edge of the fire, and the young woman if she can." As Josep Pla said, these sayings are only true if they don't rhyme. And this saying does rhyme. Therefore, according to Pla's theory, the saying is false. And it's obvious, because it also takes the old man and the young woman. We'll see what this March, which begins tomorrow, will do. We don't know if it will take more old women than old men or more young women than young men. February has passed, from storm to storm, each one bearing its name, as it goes. They have caused floods, gales, and accidents in general. A turbulent disruption of "the sublime monotony of one day after another," as Carles Riba wrote. Roads cut off, schools closed, flights canceled… In my town, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, they suspended the carnival parade because it was raining. But the locals couldn't resign themselves to not celebrating Carnival, so they moved it to the following Friday, without considering that the following Friday was the first Friday of Lent, and that street parties and Lent were two incompatible things. But now, who even knows what Lent is? On the other hand, everyone knows what Ramadan is. Perhaps because poor Lamine Yamal has to run fasting and exhausted on whatever grass he can find. Oh well! That said, the mimosas are now in full bloom, sprinkling perfume into the air of late February, offering the golden blossoms of their soft leaves to the eyes of those of us who, hopeful, are preparing to cross March, March, without too many complications.

This coming Easter, beyond the usual processions and getaways, a unique opportunity opens up for lovers of history, art, and ancient civilizations. Viatges Eurovacances offers various cultural trips, always guided from Barcelona and in groups, that invite you to discover the world through a different lens: that of a curious traveler seeking to understand, feel, and learn.

April 11, 2025Today is the Friday before Holy Sunday. There are some Virgins of Sorrows who celebrate their saint's day. But the Vatican's changes have moved the feast to September 8th, and many celebrate it on that day. It seems to me, and has always seemed to me, that Our Lady of Sorrows has more to do with Holy Week than with the day on which all the Virgins found are celebrated. That of Núria, that of Tura, and before having their own feast day, that of Montserrat. Our Lady of Sorrows is linked to the Passion, and it was very appropriate to celebrate it just before Holy Week begins.

We often complain that people are just numbers, but ultimately everything, absolutely everything, ends up being quantified. The saying "what's important is quality, not quantity" becomes as empty a phrase as "what's important is participation." This week has been especially significant in terms of numbers, starting with Easter, which is also measured by the sale of monas (monks) and their price, and the increase in flights, 11% compared to last year at El Prat, if that were necessary. And also, if that were necessary, more visitors to Catalonia, in this case 10%. The same numbers that satisfy some, so the economy must move forward, worry others, so if the decline doesn't start now, we'll all go to hell, also massively. But then you never know who's going to pass. accounts.

These days of Holy Week, whether you're a believer or not, inevitably connect with death. These are days when Requiem Masses (Mozart, Verdi, and so on) are performed in churches and concert halls; where we see processions through the streets or reported on by the media; where the calendar's own holidays indicate "Good Friday" or "Easter Sunday."

The Christian calendar of celebrations has just celebrated the resurrection of Christ. Every believer has an absolute right to believe that this phenomenon occurred. From the perspective of mere reason, however, it seems that such a phenomenon is not credible.

We are not made to die, but to be born, Hannah Arendt argues. But, in fact, we begin to die the very moment we are born. Although it may be difficult to accept, our life will inevitably end in the arms of death. Faced with this threatening destiny, humanity has managed to create stories that soothe the fear of finitude. Historically, different spiritual and religious traditions have developed narratives of hope, expressed in promises of life beyond death, such as the Christian resurrection, characteristic of the Western world, or reincarnation, rooted in Eastern traditions. Holy Week culminates with Easter Sunday, a feast that embodies the hope of rebirth, of not dying.

By Easter weekThe streets of Pineda de Mar, in the Maresme region, are packed to the brim to follow one of the processions that inspires the greatest devotion and enthusiasm in all of Catalonia. It moves on to the Poblenou neighborhood, far from the municipality's historic center, where many working-class families live. Every year, during the Easter holidays, they take to the streets and balconies to follow the footsteps of Christ and the Virgin Mary with silence, applause, and emotion. The procession is organized by the Poblenou brotherhood, linked to the neighborhood parish, which this year celebrates its fortieth anniversary, at a moment of maximum splendor: far from declining and losing followers, the brotherhood continues to grow, especially after the pandemic, and adds more than 300 members from all those participating in this festivity.

The AP-7 will be the busiest highway during Easter. This is the forecast of the Catalan Traffic Service (SCT), which announced on Wednesday morning that it will open two additional lanes starting tomorrow, coinciding with the holiday's outbound journey. They will also be opened for the return journey. In addition to the extra lanes, Trànsit will also restrict heavy vehicle traffic to make the motorway smoother and less dangerous. In total, more than one million journeys are expected: 560,000 outbound journeys from the Barcelona metropolitan area (66% on Thursday and 33% on Friday) and a return journey of 580,000 vehicles.

Holy Week begins with the blessing of the palm tree, a symbolic act that marks the beginning of a time that combines tradition and religious devotion with rest and leisure. This dynamic range expands between those who experience the various events with fervor and spirituality and those who take advantage of the holidays to unwind or travel. The stagnant tradition, seemingly lacking in desire for change, also becomes a tourist attraction, attracting visitors for its heritage value and bringing together two worlds that seem increasingly distant.

The Easter holidays are rather short, but they're enough days to enjoy a television drama with a beginning and an end, the very definition of a miniseries. Beyond the very popular Adolescence, which has already been recommended by land, sea, and air, we at ARA have made a selection of ten miniseries that you can discover during the Easter break. You can complement these recommendations with the lists of recent British fictions, where there are also some interesting miniseries, such as Mr. Bates v. Post Office, or short series like We are Lady Parts.

Eurovacation TripsWith nearly 40 years in the tourism sector, a leader in guided group tours from Barcelona with all services included, offers a comprehensive program so that whatever your preferences, you can find the perfect trip for this year.

This Easter, the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation offers a series of activities for all tastes and ages: from immersion in art and culture to the discovery of unique natural landscapes. A program of activities that will allow residents of Catalonia to experience art, history, nature, and culture in an authentic and intimate way. Whether in the heart of Barcelona or surrounded by nature, the organization's many and diverse options offer a new way to explore the heritage and traditions of Catalonia.

The Costa Brava and the Girona Pyrenees are two ideal destinations for those seeking a combination of nature, culture, and adventure. From the coastline with hidden coves to the majestic Pyrenean mountains, these places offer unique experiences for discovering picture-postcard landscapes in a different way, whether for those looking for activities with family or friends. This spring, the region becomes the perfect setting for unique experiences. Here you'll find options for all tastes.