WHAT IS THE HOLY WEEK?

HOLY WEEK
(FROM PALM SUNDAY TO EASTER SUNDAY)


Photograph by Jorge Sesé


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The most important day of the christian calendar is RESURRECTION DAY OR EASTER SUNDAY, which is, the step or transformation (conversion and internal transformation of the body to life and fullness and transformation after death). The date of Easter Sunday is set according to the lunar cycles following the tradition of the Jewish lunar calendar of the time of Jesus Christ (approved at the Council of Nicaea in the year 325).
The first full moon after the boreal spring (or northern hemisphere) equinox marks the time of reference.

  • The first Sunday, after the full moon,commemorates and brings to life the Resurrection of Christ (Easter). Christ is resurrected (day of Light and Joy).
  • The previous Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, beginning the time of his Passion, Death and Resurrection.
  •  Lent: it starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Palm Sunday or The Palm. it ends on  the Friday of Sorrows (the Friday before Palm Sunday).
  • Holy Thursday (the fourth day after the Entry into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday) recounts the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples and the action of the Eucharist..
  • On Good Friday (the fifth day after the Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday) the processional act of the HOLY BURIAL or the acts of the Passion and Death of Christ takes place.
  • Holy Saturday (the day before Resurrection or Easter Sunday) Christ lies dead (the day of darkness and silence)
The liturgical Holy Week is from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. During the whole week  the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ or HOLY WEEK  takes place.

(In the previous days to Holy Week - Friday of Sorrows and Saturday of Passion - various Lenten acts are performed among which stand out: the processional Via Crucis of Friday of Sorrows or the processional courtship of the Announcement and the proclamation of the Announcement of the beginning of the Holy Week, Holy Saturday, a paraliturgical act, which takes place the day before the start of Holy Week.)

Lent -→Ash Wednesday→ the 14th of February of 2024
Holy Week: From the 24th of March to the 31th March of 2024:

        Friday of Sorrows -→ 22th March
        Saturday of Passion -→ 23th March
        Palm Sunday -→ 24th March
        Holy Monday -→ 25th March
        Holy Tuesday -→ 26th March
        Holy Wednesday -→ 27th March
        Holy Thursday-→ 28th March
        Good Friday  (Holy Burial) -→ 29th March
        Holy Saturday (Saturday of Pain and Silence) -→30th March
        Easter Sunday (Resurrection) -→ 31h March

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In the Holy Week of Zaragoza the different  brotherhoods [1] publicly parade
through the streets carrying all the moments of the Passion of Christ by the “brother” on their shoulders or on the religious floats or “pasos”, represented by imagery - and sculptures in polychrome wood. The  Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ, whose canonical headquarters is in the Royal Chapel of Saint Isabel of Portugal (Saint Cayetano), organizes and articulates the Procession of the Holy Burial of Good Friday. 
In the days before the Holy Burial each  brotherhood processes through the streets performing a Via Crucis, and also has meetings with other groups (at different moments of the Passion) or taking the religious floats or“pasos” to lock them (to keep them until they leave on Good Friday) to the Church of Saint Isabel of Portugal.  This church is the neuralgic centre of Holy Week and the Holy Burial in Zaragoza, because from there the religious floats and images leave in order. These floats represent the Passion and Death of Christ being  Christ on the Bed - the Dead Christ - the fundamental epicenter of the Procession of the Holy Burial or Procession of Processions.

The Holy Week of Zaragoza has more than 700 years of history, more than 400 years the Holy Burial and now the Passion of Christ is publicly shown through 53 processions, the Procession of the Holy Burial being one of them. Around 16,000 procession members and 7,000 bass drums and tambours participate in these processions and process with thunderous and atavistic sounds announcing the moment of the Passion and accompanying Christ through the streets. Along with drums and bass drums, there are small drums, rattles, ratchets, heraldic trumpets, cornets, “jotas” of religious content, bands and minstrels.

[1] The brotherhood`s are religious groups which perform works of charity, solidarity as well as social work during the wholw year. They perform the processions in Holy Week.

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