Easter: Holy Week with grand processions
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the most important week in the religious calendar in Tenerife, the start of Semana Santa, Holy Week, or Easter Week.
Easter celebrations in Tenerife are known for their magnificent processions, which take place all over the island throughout the week, though the ones in La Laguna, La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz are among the grandest.
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As the seat of the Bishop of Tenerife, the celebrations in La Laguna are the most important and culminate in the magnificent Magna procession on Viernes Santo (Good Friday, April 6), which starts at 5pm from the church of Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, one of the oldest churches on the island, dating back to 1502.
The Magna procession is followed by the Silence procession, starting at 9pm, in which all the town’s religious brotherhoods take part.
La Orotava’s main event takes place on Maundy Thursday, or Jueves Santo, with the procession of Senor de Columna, which starts at the church of San Juan and ends in the main square in front of the town hall.
Processions of one kind or another take place pretty much every day in Puerto de la Cruz, starting from church of Nuestra Senora de la Pena de Francia.
The town’s Magna procession is on Maundy Thursday, but most impressive of all is the Crucificado procession which takes place before daybreak on Good Friday, starting at 4am.
In Adeje, they stage their own version of the Passion, starting at 12 noon and re-enacting the events leading up to the crucifixion.
It is carried out on a grand scale, with over 300 local people taking part, with the whole of its two hours screened live on Canarian television.
Semana Santa is celebrated in towns and villages across the island, with other important processions taking place in Guimar, Garachico and Los Realejos.
That’s Easter in Tenerife island…