Festivities and traditions


jueves, 26 de febrero de 2015

Holy Week

Holy Week



The centenary and very emotional Holy week of Guadix is considered a religious celebration of tourist interest in Andalusia because of the high involvement of citizens and the contrasts in the processions through the historic city centre and the caves, where the tradition and the faith are merged. Its origin dates back to XVI and XVII century when, after the occupation of the city by the Catholic Kings, a new religious order was stablished, favouring the appearance of the Holy Week. The statues were a vehicle to show the life of Christ, Mary and the Saints to a mainly illiterate society, who gathered around a devotional statue creating brotherhoods or associations. The religious orders (Dominicans and Franciscans) were the main representatives of these associations of the faithful. As such, the Guadix Holy Week appeared in the XVII, being Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Santiago and San Sebastián the focus of the brotherhoods. The XIX century was a period with ups and downs because of the political events in the region and it went into a crisis at the beginning of the XX century, from which can’t be completely recovered until the 1980s. Nowadays, it is one of the most important and popular celebrations at regional level.

It is the week in which the Passion of Christ is commemorated and it is composed of two parts. The End of the Lent, from the Palm Sunday to the Holy Wednesday, and the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday and Easter Sunday). During those days, Guadix people enjoy the emotional and devotional processions made by fifteen brotherhoods which take to the streets and squares since every Palm Sunday to the Easter Sunday. They are: Borriquilla, Estrella, Dolores, Flagelación, Esperanza, Vía-Crucis, Nazareno, Lágrimas, Obediencia, Luz, San Juan, Descendimiento, Sepulcro, Soledad y Resucitado next to the Cautivo and Rosario pro-brotherhoods. Their imagery and processions are of high quality, emphasising highly valuable statues such as Cristo de la Misericordia , Cristo de la Flagelación, Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, La Virgen de la Humildad, Nuestra Sra. De Los Dolores (the old statue of the Patron) or San Juan Evangelista. All of them were made in the XVIII and XIX centuries.


It is a week in which Guadix people and visitors experience intensely the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, taking part actively in the processions or as mere viewers. It makes Guadix a model of the Andalusian Holy Week in those days.