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ARCHIVED - Dates of the official Semana Santa Easter holidays in the Region of Murcia 2023
Easter is coming up, but do you know when will be the festive dates and what are the red days for public bank holidays?
The Region of Murcia is already getting fully into Easter, the first festive period of the year and, therefore, the most eagerly awaited after the Christmas holidays.
The dates of this festivity, which is based on a religious festival and often celebrated in a traditionally Catholic way in Spain, are related to other events such as Ash Wednesday and Corpus Christi, which is why Easter does not have a fixed date of the year like the rest of the Christian festivities.
Each year, Passion Week or Easter Week – also known in Spanish as ‘Semana Santa’ – is celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon of the spring equinox, ranging from March 22 to April 25.
So when exactly are the public holidays for Easter this year, and when can we expect shops, banks, schools and businesses to be shut?
Easter holidays in the Region of Murcia 2023
Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday is the day that marks how the rest of the Easter holidays fall. In 2023, this is celebrated on April 9.
Therefore, the first public holiday or red day in Murcia will be Holy Thursday/Maundy Thursday, April 6.
Both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday – which will be on April 10 – are holidays in every municipality in the Region, which means that it will be a four-day weekend for many, providing their work situation allows it.
On the Thursday and Friday, banks will certainly be shut, as will many supermarkets and stores.
One more day for Cartagena and Águilas
Interestingly, there are some towns in the Region of Murcia which have chosen to take extra holidays at Easter, corresponding to the two says per year that each municipality must take. In this case, both Cartagena and Águilas have decided to take March 31, Friday of Sorrows, as a municipal holiday.
In Cartagena, Friday of Sorrows is considered its ‘Big Day’, when the floral offering to the patron saint of the municipality, the Virgen de la Caridad, is celebrated. Thousands of people take to the streets during the afternoon-evening to enjoy the early morning procession, and at the same time the early morning Semana Santa procession is the first to take place in the whole of Spain!
All schoolchildren in the Region of Murcia have the whole of Easter Week off, from Monday April 3 to Friday April 7. This is one week less than in the UK, where the Easter school holidays run until Friday April 14 this year.
However, in the municipality of Murcia itself - which accounts for almost a third of the population of the Region - the week after Easter is also a school holiday, coinciding with the annual Fiestas de Primavera!
You might also like: The 7 travel rules you have to know for the Easter holidays in Spain this year
Image: Ayuntamiento de Jumilla
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