Things to do at Easter in Barcelona. Where to find Easter parades and processions? Easter in Spain is called “Semana Santa,” which means "Holy Week." The Easter week starts on Palm Sunday - called "Diumenge de Rams" in Catalan" - and "Domingo de Ramos" in Spanish. Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter week and in 2012 Palm Sunday is on Sunday 1st April 2012. There are parades and processions in Barcelona both on Palm Sunday and Good Friday - called "Divendres Sant" in Catalan and "Viernes Santo" in Spanish. Good Friday in 2012 is on Friday 6th April 2012. Easter 2012 ends on "Lunes de Pascua" Easter Monday on Monday 9th April 2012. Scroll down the page to read about Easter week processions and traditions in Barcelona. Pictures Easter procession Barcelona Pictures Easter procession Hospitalet
What to do at Easter in Barcelona? Barcelona is a popular destination at Easter which can mean longer lines at top attractions. You can save time by pre-booking tours and discounts cards online in our Barcelona tours shop. For families with children spending Easter in Barcelona popular attractions are the Barcelona Zoo and Tibidabo amusement park and the Barcelona Aquarium which usually have special Easter programmes with plenty of activities for kids. Find more things to do with children in Barcelona on our page Barcelona attractions for children and on our Barcelona museums page.
Barcelona is a modern and cosmopolitan city and the Easter celebrations are not quite of a magnitude match the splendour and magnitude of some other Spanish cities like Sevilla - but you can find traditional Easter processions in the center of Barceona on Palm Sunday and Good Friday and even more in the suburbs of Barcelona.
Easter processions in Spain are organised by the "Hermandades y Cofradías de Penitencia" which are a religious brotherhood of lay people, both male and female, who have the blessing of the church to organise processions. The Pentitencia brotherhoods only parade at Easter whereas the "Hermandades de gloria" parade at other times of the year but not at Easter. In Barcelona city centre there are two "Hermandades de Penitencia" who organise Easter processions. One is the "Nuestra Señora de las Angustias" from the church "Iglesia de Sant Jaume" - and the other is "la Hermandad de la Macarena y la de Jesús del Gran Poder" from the Iglesia de San Agustín.
The Easter processions are called an "estación de penitencia" which is the procession from their home parish church to the Cathedral of Barcelona and back. Sometimes the processions are also called "pasos" because the beautifully decorated and adorned Easter floats themselves are also called "pasos" and a "Hermandad de Penitencia" can organise various procession but with different paso floats.
The paso floats havelarge wooden effigies of Christ either carrying the cross or on the cross. The sculptures can also be the Virgin Mary, or other saints or biblical figures or scenes. The Pasos are carried by 30-50 porters called "costaleros," who carry the paso like a litter. They are very heavy and so there breaks have to be taken. The leader of the bearers called the "capataz" determines the "chicotá," which is the pause between a paso being lifted and set down again. The floats are carried along the procession route to the cathedral for the station of penitance at the Cathedral then return to their parish church.
The signal to lift or set down the paso is given by the "llamador" (crier) who knocks on the front of the float.There are various robes for brotherhood members. The "nazareños" wear penitential robes called a "nazareño" which have very tall pointed hats called “capirotes." "Nazareños"often carry candles called "cirios." The "costaleros" don't wear the pointy “capirotes,” but often are often fully masked. The penitents carry crosses and wear robes with hoods too, but not the pointed hoods.
2012 Domingo de Ramos - Palm Sunday procession 1/4 Paso: La Borriquita (little donkey) Jesús enters Jerusalem in triumph on a donkey Parroquia de San Agustín Start: 10.00 Iglesia de San Agustín Plaça Sant Agustí, 2, Raval Finish: 12:00 same place Procession Route: Plaça Sant Agustí, Hospital, La Rambla, Santa Ana, Portal del Ángel, Cucurulla, Portaferrisa, La Rambla, Hospital y Plaza San Agustín.
The first Good Friday parade in Barcelona starts In the Raval area at the church “La Iglesia de Sant Agustí” on Plaça Sant Agustí It starts at 17.00 hours with a very nice procession with two "paso" floats and around 300 participants and musicians. At 19.00 at the church “Iglesia de Sant Jaume” on Carrer de Ferran in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona aother Good Friday Easter procession starts at 19.00 hours. To celebrate mass visit to the gothic Santa Maria del Mar church or the Barcelona Cathedral or the famous Sagrada Familia. For Palm Sunday decorations visit "Feria de Ramos" on the street Rambla de Catalunya
2012 Good Friday - Viernes Santo procession 6/4 Procession la Hermandad de la Macarena - Paso Cristo Start: 17.00 Iglesia de San Agustín Plaça Sant Agustí, 2, Raval At 20:00 they meet in front of Barcelona cathedral with the procession of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias Finish: around 22.30 same place Procession Route: Plaça Sant Agustí, La Rambla, Santa Ana, Portal del Ángel, Arcs, Plaza Nova, Avenida Catedral, Boters, Pi, Plaza del Pi, Cardenal Casañas, Boqueria, Hospital and Plaça Sant Agustí
2012 Good Friday - Viernes Santo procession 6/4 Procession Hermandad y Cofradía de Nuestra Señora de las Angustias Paso: Nuestra Señora de las Angustias - Our Lady of Sorrows Start: 19:00 Iglesia de Sant Jaume in Gothic area on Carrer de Ferran 28 At 20:00 they meet in front of Barcelona cathedral with the procession of la Hermandad de la Macarena Finish: 23:00 at Iglesia de Sant Jaume Procession Route: Iglesia de Sant Jaume, Ferrán, Plaza San Jaime, Bisbe, Avenida de la Catedral, Boters, Portaferrissa, Ramblas and Ferrán, Iglesia de Sant Jaume
Cofradia 15+1 Easter processions in Hospitalet area of Barcelona The biggest Easter processions in Barcelona are in the suburb of Barcelona called Hospitalet de Llobregat, which is easily reached by metro on blue L5. It was here in Hospitalet in 1977 that a band of homesick Andalusians were watching the Easter processions in Sevilla on TV. They missed the wonderful processions of southern Spain so much that they decided to start their own processions in Barcelona. They formed "Asociación Cultural Andaluza Cofradía 15 +" - the brotherhood Cofradía 15+1, the 15 being the number of original organisers and the 1 added later to symbolise the town of Hospitalet. This is the only cofradia in Spain that organises all six Easter "paso" processions that mark the death and resurrection.of Christ. What also makes the Cofradia 15+1 unique is that their Easter processions are completely secular and have no church involvement. Around one million people usually follow the six Cofradia Easter processions.
2012 Sunday 1/4 - Domingo de Ramos - Palm Sunday 11:00 Paso Cristo - La Borriquita (little donkey) 18:30 Paso de Jusús Cautivo Starts:Placa de la Bobila 2012 Friday 6/4 - Viernes Santo - Good Friday. 08.30 Paso de Jesús Nazareno 08:30 Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows) 21:00 Paso del Cristo de la Expiación(The Atonement of Christ) Starts:Carrer del Moli
2012 Saturday 7/4 - Sabado Santo - Easter Saturday 20:00 Paso del Santo Sepulcro (The Holy Tomb) 20:00 Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude) Starts:Placa de la Bobila
2012 Sunday 8/4 - Domingo de Resurrección - Resurrection Sunday (Easter Day) 18:00 Paso Jesús Resucitado (Resurrection of Jesus) 18:00 Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies) Start:Placa de la Bobila
Easter celebrations near Barcelona Easter processions in Catalonia can be found in many smaller towns that are 1-2 hours by car or train ride from Barcelona. Here are some ideas:
Mataro 30 minutes north of Barcelona. Impressive Good Friday processions especially at “Basílica de Santa María” usually at 21:30 GironaGirona has an impressive Good Friday Easter procession at 22.00 from the gates of Girona Cathedral. Video Easter procession in Girona TarragonaTarragona has many Easter traditions and is only 1 hour south of Barcelona. On the afternoon of Good Friday, Roman “soldiers” march in preparation for the Holy Burial procession usually at 20.15. This custom dates back to the year 1550. Tarragona has impressive Roman ruins including a Roman amphitheatre by the sea. Montserrat monastery and mountains 1 hour from Barcelona. Visit Montserrat monastery website for details of processions and mass services.
Easter traditions - Domingo de Ramos Palm Sunday always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday and signals the beginning of Easter Week: Palm Sunday is called "Fiesta de Ramos" in Spanish and "Fira de Rams" in Catalan. In Barcelona there is a La Borriquita (little donkey) Palm Sunday procession organised the Parish of San Agustín (see dates and times above.) All churches have Palm Sunday masses, which include a "Bendición de la Palma" palm blessing ceremony - which is when the priests go outside the church to bless the congregation, who are carrying laurel branches - called "ramos de laurel" and palm stalks and leaves - called "palmónes y palmas." The boys carry the "palmónes" which are the tall palm stalks - and the girls carry the "palmas," which are smaller and shorter stems with intricately woven crosses. All of the childrens' palm leaves have small bags of sweets or toys on the palms tied to them, and are often decorated with Catalan senyera ribbons. If you visit the Feria de Ramos markets in Barcelona outside Barcelona Cathedral, or on la Rambla de Catalunya or by the Sagrada Familia, where palmónes and palmas are sold on the days leading up to Palm Sunday, you can find many different sizes and variations on display. One of the traditions of Easter in Spain is that the Godmother of the children is responsible for making or getting the palm leaves for her Godchildren. In the old days this probably meant weaving them by hand, but nowadays most Godmothers buy them at the Feria de Ramos or at the supermarket. Another tradition for the children on Palm Sunday is that children should be wearing a new item of clothing. The saying goes "Domingo de Ramos - al que no estrena se le caen las manos!!" which means "Palm Sunday - if you don't wear something new you hands will drop off!" The four "Fires de Rams" markets in Barcelona are in front of Barcelona La Seu Cathedral - on the street Rambla de Catalunya - at the famous Sagrada Familia church and in Sants area on Plaça Bonet i Muixi.
Easter Monday is "el día de la mona de Pascua." In Catalonia making the cake called "Mona de Pascua" is an important culinary Easter tradition. They are called "Monas" in Spanish and "Mones" in Catalan. Around 600,000 mona cakes are sold in Barcelona at Easter. Chocolate shops also make chocolate "monas" which you can see on display in their windows. The origins of the word “mona” are clear, but it is thought that the word "mona" comes from Morocco where “mona” means “gift”or from the latin word “muna” of the same meaning. The mona tradition, which dates from the 15th century, is that the “mona” is a gift that a godfather (or godmother) bakes for their god-children at Easter.
During Lent, the period of 40 days before Easter during which devout Catholics were not allowed to eat meat and eggs, they saved the eggs until Easter and then used them to make cakes. The traditional "mona" shape is a round cake similar as a big donut with some boiled eggs in it. The number of eggs is supposed to be the age of the godchild, but no less than 2 and no more than 12. A “mona” can have many shapes and themes today, and can be all chocolate. “Mona” means monkey in Catalan, so monkeys are sometimes used as shapes, but chocolatiers and bakers all over Catalonia compete to make the biggest and most spectacular “Mona de Pascua” creations and the best ones are featured on TV. In 2011 there were many Barça-themed monas to cheer FC Barcelona to victory. Visit one of Barcelona's most famous bakeries called Escribà patisserie you will see an Easter Mona creation. Escriba has several locations but their biggest Mona is on display in Escriba shop on Gran Via 546. In 2012 the Mona de Pascua is a fantastic green dragon head inspired by the Chinese year of the Dragon.Another great place to see and buy Monas de Pascua is the Museu de la Xocolata - the Barcelona Chocolate museum in the Born area of Barcelona's old city.
Shopping in Barcelona at Easter On the public holidays of Good Friday and Easter Monday shops are closed in Barcelona. In the centre of town you will find many small souvenir tourist shops that are open and some small boutique clothing shops too, but all the big shopping centres and high-street brand shops are closed. Restaurants and bars are open.
At Easter around 600.000 Barcelona residents leave the city to spend Semana Santa in the nearby villages, seaside towns or at foreign destinations. Many Barcelona residents leave the city by car and this mass exodus is called “Operacion Salida” which means "operation exit." The Easter "operation exit" is one of the biggest of the year in Spain and Barcelona and in 2011 an estimated 650,000 cars left Barcelona for the Semana Santa break.
