Easter is a celebration of religious heritage celebrated in most of the traditionally Christian countries. Alicante‘s traditions of Semana Santa have been deeply rooted in the population for centuries.
Alicante’s Easter week sees processions with people dressed in religious attire, carrying Easter floats and brass bands playing traditional religious music. Unlike other places, Easter in Spain focuses on the Passion of Christ rather than the Resurrection.
The Holly Week in Alicante can be intense and alien at the same time. Nowadays, Spanish society is not especially religious, but some of the traditions during Easter are widely celebrated.
Is it Worth Visiting Alicante during Easter?
Alicante is worth visiting during Easter. March and April are already warm months in Alicante so it is a perfect city break to enjoy the beaches (with lifeguard services active), the sun, the food and Easter traditions in Alicante, such as the Easter parades.
Easter is a good time to visit Alicante as it doesn’t get as busy as in summer, but the vibe is already summery.
When is Easter in Spain and in Alicante?
In 2026, Easter is from Palm Sunday -on 29th of March- to Easter Sunday -on 5th of April-. Easter Monday is on the 6th of April.
Easter dates change every year, and it is based on astronomy. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday right after the first astronomic full moon on the March equinox (when days start to be longer in the northern hemisphere than in the south). Exactly 40 days after Carnival ends and marks the beginning of Lent.
Bank and School Holidays in Alicante during Easter 2026
At schools, the 2026 Easter holidays in Alicante are from the 1st of April to the 13th of April. The 16th of April is also a school holiday as it is the Santa Faz peregrination.
Adults’ bank holidays in 2026 Easter are the 3rd of April (Holy Friday), the 6th of April and the 16th of April, as it is the Santa Faz peregrinate.
At the bottom of this article, there is the full timetable for the 2025 Easter parades and events in Alicante.
The Spanish commemorate the Passion of Jesus Christ -the period and events that happened before Jesus’ death- so the important dates to annotate are from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday -the time when most of the events in Alicante will happen.
In Spain, the only national bank holiday during Easter is Good Friday, but many regions add extra holidays. In Alicante, Easter Monday is a regional bank holiday too. Schools have a few more days of holidays around Easter.
Here are the Holly Week dates for the next few years:
| Year | Palm Sunday | Good Friday | Resurrection Sunday | Easter Monday |
| 2026 | 29th March | 3th April | 5th April | 6th April |
| 2027 | 21st March | 27th March | 28th March | 29th March |
| 2028 | 9th April | 15th April | 16th April | 17th April |
| 2029 | 25th March | 31st March | 1st April | 2nd April |
| 2030 | 14th April | 20th April | 21st April | 22nd April |
Best Easter Parades to Watch in Alicante
The best Easter Parades to watch in Alicante are:
- Palm Sunday – Processions and people celebrating with white palm tree leaves
- Wednesday – Santa Cruz Brotherhood: In the Santa Cruz Neighbourhood they parade the floats in between narrow and hilly streets
- Thursday – Santa Cena Brotherhood: They parade the biggest easter float in Spain (in Spanish)
- Domingo de Resurreción – Float dances in front of the City Hall, and aleluyas are released from the balcony
More information about all of this is below.
What Happens in Alicante During Easter?
The Spanish tradition at Easter is to commemorate the Passion of Jesus Christ, the period and events that happened before Jesus ‘ death. As you know, Easter traditions in other countries are around the resurrection -and not the death- of Jesus Christ.
The events taking place during Holly Week are mainly parades with icons, dresses and music commemorating the events before the death and the resurrection. The vibe is somehow solemn.
Counterintuitively, many people seeing the processions or even participating in the parades are not especially religious, and maybe they have not even been in church in years. It is arguably safe to say that Easter in Spain is not about religion as much as it is about following traditions.
The Processions and Parades
The main events happening during the Holly Week are the parades.
There are many parades organised by cofradías or hermandades, which we can translate as church brotherhoods.
Each church brotherhood organises a procession on a different day during the Holly Week, and each day can have more than one procession.
The procession usually starts from a church, and all of them must parade from their church to some of the streets in the city centre as perthe City Hall mandate. The tour all brotherhoods must parade is called carrera oficial, which we can translate to the official route.
Usually, Alicante’s Carrera Official is La Rambla Street, so it is the place to see absolutely all the parades if that’s your intention.
The Easter processions are formed of 4 main elements:
- Floats are usually carried on the shoulders by costaleros
Most of the time, each brotherhood has two floats, one featuring an image of Christ -normally at the crucifixion- and another with the image of the Virgin Mary, but some of the parades may have different or more floats.
The people carrying the floats are called costaleros. Sometimes -and depending on the brotherhood-, the Virgin Mary float is carried by only women crew and the Christ by only men. This is true only sometimes, as most of the time the costaleros are women or men indistinctively. There are also lighter floats for children and teenagers.
- Brass Bands, usually right after each of the Floats
The Brass Bands usually play religious music. They are professional musicians making money per parade. Usually, the musicians are somehow stable in one Brass Band, and they sometimes travel around different cities to fill up the demand for bands during easter.
- Nazarenos -the people parading with religious attire and usually carrying small religious icons-
Between floats, the Nazarenos parade in different formations. They usually carry different stuff. Sometimes it is sweets for the children, but other times they carry candles, wooden crosses or religious standards.
- Manolas -women dressing in black-
The Manolas have their origin in dictatorial Spain. Women had banned from being nazarenos in the parades but still had an essential role in preparing the clothing and decoration of the floats.
Around the 19th century, some of these women were allowed to parade in the processions using traditional clothing used on Sundays to go to church: a black dress, peineta and mantilla. Since then to our days, this tradition has been kept despite the fact that gender is not used to ban people anymore.
- Church brotherhoods representatives or authorities
In different places of the processions, there are different representatives. Sometimes they invite “honorific” people, such as politicians, like in the photo above, where Alicante’s city mayor in 2023, Luis Barcala, is parading too. Other times, they are church representatives or brotherhood directives.
Other Events During Easter
There is much more happening during easter in Alicante.
Palm Sunday
Parades with huge palm tree leaves were prepared for the occasion.
Saetas
Another interesting tradition is the saetas -a religious song-, more common in Andalucia but a tradition also of some of the parades in Alicante.
Masses
Masses are common during easter but they are more popular among people following the festivity as a Christian tradition rather than a popular celebration.
Stations of the Cross
Called Via Crucis in Spanish, is a commemoration of events that happened on the day of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. This is also mainly followed among people celebrating the religious Semana Santa rather than the general public.
Easter Day or Easter Sunday
During Easter Day –Domingo de Resurreción in Spanish- some processions happen during the morning, and they parade to Alicante’s city hall.
In Alicante, there is a singular event happening during this parade at the city hall. Thousands of little papers with religious images -called aleluyas– are dropped from the city’s hall balconies to the floats and the public:
Easter Monday
Called Lunes de Pascua in Spanish, it is an important day where monas are eaten. In Alicante, they are traditional pastry bread with a boiled egg on it. In other Spanish regions, monas are different.
A common Alicantinian tradition during Easter Monday is to meet your friends and family for a short trip near the sea or in the mountains, where to have lunch together in nature.
For many families, the tradition mandates squashing the boiled egg in someone else’s head in order to break the eggshell and to be able to peel it. Funny fights happen these days in all families.
Semana Santa Dressing
Something to note is that many cofradias‘ attires include a capirote -a hood with a conic shape and holes in the eyes-. It can remind certain sects in other countries. The Easter traditions in Spain are way older than these sects. Semana Santa traditions, including the dressing, originated in the XV century.
All brotherhoods share the same style of attire: hoods, tunics, capirotes, the Manolas dresses, and iconography… But each congregation has different styles and colours, sometimes darker, other times colourful. It is up to each brotherhood tradition how they dress.
Traditional Easter Food in Alicante
- torrijas
- mona de pascua
- toñas
History of easter in Alicante
Alicante’s Semana Santa starts around the year 1600. The origin took place in a little hermitage in the current Alicante city centre. In this little church, resided Virgen de la Soledad or Virgin of Solitude.
Alicantinians founded in the hermitage a brotherhood called Purísima Sangre de Cristo or Pure Blood of Christ that would parade every Easter Friday in a procession conveniently called Entierro de Cristo or Burial of Christ. There is more about the history of Semana Santa in Alicante on this page (in Spanish).
Alicante Easter Transport
Alicante’s Tram trains might have night extra services running on Easter. Keep an eye here as we will update when confirmed by the transport company.
2026 Alicante’s Easter Timetable
29th of March to the 5th of April. Every evening, several brotherhoods will parade in Alicante’s city centre. Here is the full timetable for the 2026 Easter. You can download the official pdf timetable booklet from here (Source in Spanish).
Main events during the Easter Holly Week:
28th of February
- Official Holy Week Proclamation (Pregón Oficial)
- Starting at 18:30
- Starting point: Teatro Principal
- By Junta Mayor Hermandades y Cofradías
8th of March
- Tamborrada
- Starting at 11:00
- Starting point: Plaza del Ayuntamiento
- By Junta Mayor Hermandades y Cofradías
15th of March
- National Band Contest (Certamen Nacional de Bandas)
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Plaza del Ayuntamiento
- By Junta Mayor Hermandades y Cofradías
29th of March (Palm Sunday)
- Bendición de Palmas
- Starting at 11:15
- Starting point: Jardines de Diputación
- By Hermandad de Jesús Triunfante
31st of March
- Procession in Villafranqueza (Hermanamiento)
- Starting at 9:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San José Villafranqueza
- By Cofradía del Hallazgo
2nd of April
- Procession in Villafranqueza
- Starting at 21:00
- Starting point: Parroquia San José Villafranqueza
- By Cofradía del Hallazgo
3rd of April (Good Friday)
- Sermón de las 7 Palabras
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Hermandad Buena Muerte
5th of April (Easter Sunday)
- Encuentro: Ntra. Sra. de la Alegría y Cristo Resucitado
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Plaza del Ayuntamiento
- By Gloriosa Hermandad de la Alegría y Junta Mayor
Complete Easter Related Events in Alicante 2026:
28th of February
- Official Holy Week Proclamation
- Starting at 18:30
- Starting point: Teatro Principal
- By Junta Mayor Hermandades y Cofradías
- Besamanos to Ntra. Sra. de la Amargura
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Antonio de Padua
- By Cofradía Ecce-Homo
- XV Youth Proclamation (Pregón de la Juventud Cofrade)
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Ntra. Sra. de Gracia
- By Hermandad Humildad y Paciencia
- Besamanos to La Soledad and Besapiés to Cristo de las Almas
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Basílica de Santa María
- By Cofradía San Pedro y Soledad
1st of March
- Besamanos, Institutional Act and Proclamation
- Starting at 11:30 and 12:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Antonio de Padua
- By Cofradía del Ecce-Homo y Redención
- Solemn Institutional Act
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Basílica de Santa María
- By Cofradía San Pedro y Soledad
- 5th Day of Quinario and Main Service (Función Principal)
- Starting at 12:20
- Starting point: Ntra. Sra. de Gracia
- By Hermandad Humildad y Paciencia
2nd of March
- Triduo al Señor de la Sentencia (2nd to 4th of March)
- Starting at 19:00
- Starting point: Parroquia Inmaculada del Pla
- By Cofradía de la Sentencia
4th of March
- Triduo Ecce-Homo (4th to 6th of March)
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Antonio de Padua
- By Cofradía Ecce-Homo
5th of March
- General Holy Week Via Crucis
- Starting at 20:15
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Junta Mayor Semana Santa Alicante
6th of March
- Besapiés and Via Crucis (Stmo. Cristo Cautivo)
- Starting at 10:00 and 19:00
- Starting point: Ermita Santa Cruz
- By Hermandad de Santa Cruz
- Extraordinary Via Crucis
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Casco antiguo de Alicante
- By Hermandad Jesús Despojado
7th of March
- Institutional Act and Exaltation
- Starting at 19:00
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Hermandad Nuestro Padre Jesús
- Eucharist for the deceased and Via Crucis
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Antonio de Padua y calles de la feligresía
- By Cofradía del Ecce-Homo y Redención
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Calles del Barrio San Antón
- By Hermandad Gran Poder
8th of March
- Tamborrada
- Starting at 11:00
- Starting point: Plaza del Ayuntamiento
- By Junta Mayor Hermandades y Cofradías
13th of March
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Juan Bautista de Benalúa
- By Cofradía Piedad y Caridad
14th of March
- Institutional Act
- Starting at 18:00
- Starting point: Parroquia María Auxiliadora
- By Hermandad de la Santa Cena
- Besamanos to María Stma. del Mayor Dolor
- Starting at 11:30 and 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Antonio de Padua
- By Cofradía de la Santa Redención
- Institutional Act
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Hermandad del Perdón
- Triduo (12th to 14th), Institutional Act and Proclamation
- Starting at 19:00
- Starting point: Parroquia San José de Carolinas
- By Hermandad Mater Desolata
15th of March
- National Band Contest (Certamen Nacional de Bandas)
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Plaza del Ayuntamiento
- By Junta Mayor Hermandades y Cofradías
- Besamanos to María Stma. del Mayor Dolor
- Starting at 11:30 and 12:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Antonio de Padua
- By Cofradía de la Santa Redención
17th of March
- Proclamation and Institutional Act
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Capilla Colegio Maristas
- By Hermandad Stabat Mater
20th of March
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 20:30
- Starting point: Parroquia María Auxiliadora
- By Hermandad Santa Cena
21st of March
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 17:30
- Starting point: Ermita Virgen del Socorro
- By Cofradía “El Morenet”
- Institutional Act and Proclamation
- Starting at 19:00
- Starting point: Parroquia Santa Teresa
- By Hermandad Jesús Despojado
- Main Service, Proclamation and Concert
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia Misericordia
- By Hermandad del Gran Poder
- Besapiés
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Ermita Virgen del Socorro
- By Cofradía “El Morenet”
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 21:00
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Cofradía del Divino Amor
22nd of March
- Proclamation
- Starting at 11:00
- Starting point: Ermita Virgen del Socorro
- By Cofradía “El Morenet”
- Institutional Act
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Jardines de Diputación
- By Hermandad de Jesús Triunfante
25th of March
- Triduo to titular images (25th to 27th of March)
- Starting at 19:00
- Starting point: Capilla Colegio Maristas
- By Hermandad Stabat Mater
27th of March
- XXXVIII Exaltation of Saeta and Mantilla
- Starting at 13:00
- Starting point: Convento Monjas de la Sangre
- By Cofradía del Divino Amor
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Blas
- By Hermandad Santa Flagelación
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Capilla Colegio Maristas
- By Hermandad Stabat Mater
- Mass and Traslado
- Starting at 17:45 and 18:15
- Starting point: Convento RRMM Capuchinas
- By Hermandad Buena Muerte
- Bajada del Cristo and Institutional Act
- Starting at 19:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San Juan Bautista
- By Cofradía Piedad y Caridad
- Via Crucis
- Starting at 20:00
- Starting point: Parroquia San José de Carolinas
- By Hermandad Mater Desolata
28th of March
- Institutional Act
- Starting at 19:15
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Hermandad Buena Muerte
29th of March
- Bendición de Palmas
- Starting at 11:15
- Starting point: Jardines de Diputación
- By Hermandad de Jesús Triunfante
31st of March
- Procession of brotherhood twinning in Villafranqueza
- Starting at 9:30
- Starting point: Parroquia San José Villafranqueza
- By Cofradía del Hallazgo
2nd of April
- Procession in Villafranqueza
- Starting at 21:00
- Starting point: Parroquia San José Villafranqueza
- By Cofradía del Hallazgo
3rd of April
- Sermón de las 7 Palabras
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Concatedral de San Nicolás
- By Hermandad Buena Muerte
5th of April
- Encuentro: Ntra. Sra. de la Alegría y Cristo Resucitado
- Starting at 12:00
- Starting point: Plaza del Ayuntamiento
- By Gloriosa Hermandad de la Alegría y Junta Mayor