Easter Week in Alzira

The town of Alzira, in Valencia province, has been holding its Easter week celebrations since the 16th century, a fiesta with great popular tradition.

The Pregón (opening) of the fiesta is signalled by a pistol shot. This sees the start of celebrations that live their most crucial moments during the Palm Sunday procession, a colourful event with a theatrical representation, as well as during the Holy Burial procession on Good Friday, with up to 40,000 people in attendance. The most unusual aspect of Easter week in Alzira is the Doseles: the brotherhoods that take part in the processions decorate and adorn the statues that they take out on parade. These adornments are bursting with art and imagination, in an attempt to make the statues as realistic as possible.Easter week is one of the most heartfelt and deep-rooted fiestas celebrated in Spain. This commemoration has centuries of history and tradition, remembering the passion and death of Jesus Christ. The streets of the majority of Spain's cities, towns and villages become the stage for religious fervour and devotion, combining grief and meditation in memory of Christ's death. Music, art and colour come together in magical processions - solemn parades in which crowds of people accompany religious images on their route through the streets.