easter in europe

[Elizabeth]

Has anyone ever been to any spectacular Easter celebrations or heard of one? Hopefully I'll be in Europe in time to see something great.

[BigE]

I suppose you could go to any Cathedral in Europe and there will be a major celebration of Easter. Rome seems to have the biggest Easter celebration. It begins on Thursday night and continues through Easter morning. On Holy Thursday, April 5, the Pope will celebrate the Chrism Mass for the Rome diocese in the morning, in the Vatican basilica. That evening he will begin the Easter Triduum with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, in the basilica of St. John Lateran. On Good Friday, the Pope will lead the Way of the Cross in the evening at the Roman Coliseum.
Pope Benedict will preside at the Easter vigil service in St. Peter’s basilica beginning at 10 pm on April 7. Then he will celebrate the morning Mass of Easter-- again in the Vatican basilica-- and deliver his Urbi et Orbi message at midday from the loggia of St. Peter’s.

[marc873]

I would agree, although I am not a christian, the Vatican City would be a truly awing place to be for that holiday

[florencia9699]

In Italy they have this thing called Pasquetta, where Easter (Pasqua) is celebrated all of the following week to Easter Sunday. It's supposed to be pretty cool. I suppose if you happen to be in Spain you should expect most everything to be closed down.

Also try all sorts of pastries they have in both countries!!

[MeTurk]

Ireland pretty much shuts down for holy days aswell, even the pubs are shut, the day after the holy day is great everyone goes mental just because we wheren't allowed into a pub for one day.

[florencia9699]

everyone goes mental just because we wheren't allowed into a pub for one day

Oh!! how i'd love to see that!!!

[MeTurk]

Originally Posted by florencia9699

Oh!! how i'd love to see that!!!

Your guaranteed to on a visit to Galway:D

[tumblezweedz]

In southern Spain, La Semana Santa (or Holy Week) is renowned throughout the country. There are candlelit processions through all the bigger communities, and many smaller ones (we were in Rota, which had processions on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday night, as well as Easter Sunday afternoon), Sevilla's is the most famous and is telecast nationwide. It is colourful and solemn and quite an experience. And don't freak, the cloaked figures you see are NOT the Ku Klux Klan, they are traditional clerical robes in Spain. Ironic that the Klan assumed the costume of Catholics, but there you go...

We were in Italy last Easter, though we opted to forgo the Vatican crowds and spent the weekend in Naples. We stopped by a small, rather decrepit local Church and experienced probably one of the most moving Easter Masses ever - the place was packed, jovial, raucous, friendly and the music rocked.

Another year we were in Greece for the week preceding Easter, and discovered that all churches follow the Greek Orthodox calendar, so instead of the Palm Sunday liturgy we were expecting, we got a review of the First Sunday of Lent. However, in Athens there is a special Easter Sunday service celebrated in a small Roman Catholic chapel near the main cathedral for travelers visiting Greece at Easter (on the Roman calendar). Since we didn't have six weeks to spare, we weren't able to experience Greek Easter traditions.

In Lithuania, Easter is more of a family event, there are not great street gatherings or processions, although there's usually one through the streets of town (whichever town) to the local church on Easter Sunday. And of course, there's a procession around the church before every Palm Sunday Mass. Often these are colourful events, with the church's particularly special banners (of the resurrected Christ, the Blessed Virgin, local patron saints and whatnot) heading up the procession, and then the congregation carry beautiful "verbos", or "palms" made from straw and dried flowers in vivid colours. These can be up to several metres in length and make quite an impressive sight. In Poland they also use palms made from straw, but often there they don't have the additional dried flowers, so are not as colourful. If you ever watched Palm Sunday Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II, you probably saw a large "verbos" in the background.

[travelpunk]

Originally Posted by tumblezweedz

In southern Spain, La Semana Santa (or Holy Week) is renowned throughout the country. There are candlelit processions through all the bigger communities, and many smaller ones (we were in Rota, which had processions on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday night, as well as Easter Sunday afternoon), Sevilla's is the most famous and is telecast nationwide. It is colourful and solemn and quite an experience. And don't freak, the cloaked figures you see are NOT the Ku Klux Klan, they are traditional clerical robes in Spain. Ironic that the Klan assumed the costume of Catholics, but there you go...

We were in Italy last Easter, though we opted to forgo the Vatican crowds and spent the weekend in Naples. We stopped by a small, rather decrepit local Church and experienced probably one of the most moving Easter Masses ever - the place was packed, jovial, raucous, friendly and the music rocked.

Another year we were in Greece for the week preceding Easter, and discovered that all churches follow the Greek Orthodox calendar, so instead of the Palm Sunday liturgy we were expecting, we got a review of the First Sunday of Lent. However, in Athens there is a special Easter Sunday service celebrated in a small Roman Catholic chapel near the main cathedral for travelers visiting Greece at Easter (on the Roman calendar). Since we didn't have six weeks to spare, we weren't able to experience Greek Easter traditions.

In Lithuania, Easter is more of a family event, there are not great street gatherings or processions, although there's usually one through the streets of town (whichever town) to the local church on Easter Sunday. And of course, there's a procession around the church before every Palm Sunday Mass. Often these are colourful events, with the church's particularly special banners (of the resurrected Christ, the Blessed Virgin, local patron saints and whatnot) heading up the procession, and then the congregation carry beautiful "verbos", or "palms" made from straw and dried flowers in vivid colours. These can be up to several metres in length and make quite an impressive sight. In Poland they also use palms made from straw, but often there they don't have the additional dried flowers, so are not as colourful. If you ever watched Palm Sunday Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II, you probably saw a large "verbos" in the background.

Great post, Tamara! I must say that I have been in Spain a couple of times for Semana Santa and it is very cool to watch the processions. It is a HUGE deal there.

So for that particular holiday, my vote would go to Spain.

[xanthuos]

Originally Posted by MeTurk

Your guaranteed to on a visit to Galway:D

What about Dublin? Will there be ridiculousness in the pubs in Dublin on the day after Easter Sunday?

[MeTurk]

Of course, it's just Galway is so small you can't escape from it.