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Easter Week is possibly the most important manifestation of religiously steeped festivities in Spain. Certainly, the depiction of the Christmas story is commemorated with colourful conviction and full dedication and intensity throughout the country. But it pales in comparison to what Easter Week evokes in the population.
The special character of the Easter festivities in Lorca in the province of Murcia has not gone unnoticed by the rest of Spain. People come from far and wide to experience it. Organised bus tours also depart from Torrevieja and the surrounding area every year especially for the big procession to Lorca.
In an earlier piece on this Blog you can read how grand and stirring Easter is celebrated closer to home in Orihuela. See here for that.
But back to Lorca. What makes the Easter activities there so special? There are three reasons for that. The most spectacular and crowd-pleaser is the role of horses. Horses play the leading role during many of the colourful processions. The moments when horse-drawn carriages thunder through the streets enrapture the thousands of spectators along the roadside. And during the ten days of the festival week, horses are brought out of the stables many times.
Reason number two is the clothing of the participants in the processions. Although the costumes are always colourful and dazzling everywhere in Spain, the brotherhoods in Lorca go one better in terms of quality. The city is famous for its handmade silk and gold embroidery. This tradition goes back more than 100 years. Lorca is therefore home to many experienced and artistic embroiderers.
The third reason why Lorca's festivities stand out from those other cities has to do with the fierce rivalry between two of the six brotherhoods in total. The blue and white groups encourage each other every year to make everything even more beautiful and impressive than the year before. A kind of quality guarantee that the public is happy to benefit from.
In addition to the differences, there are of course also the similarities with the celebrations in many other places. Those who wish to visit Lorca, in addition to the apotheosis, the spectacular closing procession, can choose from numerous special processions, church services, serenades, embroidery exhibitions, prayer services and a silent march.
