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Easter Week

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Easter Week

Easter Week

Easter in Málaga is an annual religious, social and cultural celebration in the city. This celebration brings with it 45 processions and unparalleled experiences. Find out how to fully immerse yourself in these festivities, which transform the city like no other time of the year.

SEE

At the heart of the celebrations are the brotherhoods, or confraternities, some of which date back more than five centuries, which carry their religious images in procession from their places of origin to a common official route in the historic centre. Some of them also enter the Cathedral for the “estación de penitencia” (penitential station).

Málaga's most striking feature of Easter is the way they carry their thrones, with external poles that involve hundreds of men and women working towards a common goal. In addition, nazarenos (hooded confraternities), musicians, acolytes and military corps make up integral parts of the processions.

Palm Sunday

Nine processions lead the Palm Sunday celebrations in Málaga. Highlights include the emblematic brotherhood of La Pollinica in the morning, accompanied by child nazarenos. The afternoon features a number of brotherhoods that have been rekindling Easter since the 1980s, such as Dulce Nombre, Humildad y Paciencia, Salutación, Ecce Homo, Salud, and the Virgen de Lágrimas y Favores. The day concludes with two classic brotherhoods, El Huerto and El Prendimiento.

Easter Monday

Jesús Cautivo, from the Trinidad neighbourhood, is the main devotional attraction that parades through the streets on Easter Monday. The popular brotherhoods of Los Gitanos and Los Estudiantes also appear, along with the Virgen de los Dolores del Puente, which provides a contrast of sobriety in which the brotherhoods of the Crucifixion and the Passion also take part.

Holy Tuesday

The Virgen del Rocío, known as the 'Bride of Málaga', is the main event on Holy Tuesday. Besides the classic brotherhoods of La Estrella, El Rescate and La Sentencia, there are also the Penas brotherhoods, with a Virgin wearing a mantle of natural flowers, and Nueva Esperanza, the first of the brotherhoods that began to arrive from a neighbourhood beyond the historic ones.

Holy Wednesday
The more classical processions begin to flourish on Holy Wednesday. These include the Cofradías Fusionadas, La Paloma, Jesús 'El Rico', who is the star attraction of a prisoner's annual liberation, La Sangre, and the lavish cofradía de la Expiración ('Expiration' brotherhood). New confraternities such as the Mediadora de la Salvación (Mediatrix of Salvation) and that of the Salesians are also added to the list.

Maundy Thursday

Highlights include the Esperanza, whose Dolorosa marches on its most emblematic throne, together with the Misericordia, Zamarrilla, the Sagrada Cena, Viñeros and the Congregación de Mena, whose Christ is accompanied by La Legión. The sober procession of the Vera+Cruz, which is the last one that the Cofradías Fusionadas bring to the streets, and the procession of the Holy Cross add to the day's festivities.

Good Friday

Processions from almost all the historic quarters define Good Friday. La Victoria, La Malagueta, La Trinidad and El Molinillo stand out with processions such as El Amor y el Monte Calvario, El Descendimiento, La Soledad de San Pablo and La Piedad. From the historic centre come the silent brotherhood of the Dolores de San Juan and the emblematic brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. The day ends with the Virgen de Servitas walking through the streets in darkness with the brothers and sisters reciting their prayers.

After a procession-free Holy Saturday, Easter ends on Easter Sunday with the procession of the Resurrected Christ, organised by the Agrupación de Cofradías (Association of Brotherhoods) as this is the patron saint of all the brotherhoods in Málaga. Each confraternity offers a unique spectacle in different parts of the city, such as processions and bull runs, crossing bridges, beneath the trees of the Alameda, walking along Calle Larios and in the silence of the Cathedral, in a variety of narrow streets.

SMELL

Easter in Málaga is also a celebration for the senses. Incense is a typical aroma of the processions. Other scents include the smell of flowers, wood from the thrones and the smell of the sea.

HEAR

Sound is another important element of Easter Week in Málaga. You may hear the sound of the steps under the thrones, processional marches, the shouts of "viva" to the images and the bands of music that accompany the processions, playing processional marches. Processional marches are a musical genre unique to Easter, and are played by bugle and drum bands, symphonic bands or musical groups.

FEEL

Easter is a celebration which is experienced wholeheartedly and the people of Málaga are very devoted to their titular images and the processions.

This is a week spent in the streets, waiting for the brotherhoods in their neighbourhoods when they return in the early hours of the morning. People cheer and applaud the gatherings; they stand in silence as the music plays or watch a more austere brotherhood pass by, all you need to do is let yourself become a part of it and get into the spirit of the procession.