Holy Week 2025: Processions in Seville on Friday 4th April 2025
If you are looking for information about Holy Week 2025: Processions in Seville on Friday 4th April 2025, I need to clarify something important before you get confused. That day, 4th April 2025, is a Friday, yes, but it is not Good Friday. In fact, 4th April falls on the Friday of the first week of Lent, so there are no processions that day. The brotherhoods will be in full preparation, finalising the details of their floats, rehearsing with their costaleros (float bearers) and holding their internal religious services, but for now, the streets remain quiet.
However, if what you are looking for is information about Good Friday, that is 18th April 2025. And that is where things change completely. That day, Holy Week 2025: Processions in Seville on Friday 4th April 2025 is not the correct date, but if you stay with me, I'll tell you everything you need to know to experience the authentic Sevillian Good Friday.
📅 Good Friday in Seville: 18th April 2025
Good Friday is one of the great days of the Seville Holy Week. The brotherhoods that process that day have a special character, more sober and solemn, and they walk the streets with a devotion that you can feel in the air. These are some of the most important ones you will be able to see on 18th April 2025:
- The Brotherhood of the Holy Entombment: It is one of the most solemn processions of the entire Holy Week. It represents the burial of Christ and its procession is usually marked by recollection and silence. It is a brotherhood with a long history and its passage through the Official Route is always exciting.
- The Brotherhood of Los Gitanos (The Gypsies): One of the most popular and beloved. Its Virgin of Hope, affectionately known as "La Gitanilla", arouses true passions. The Triana neighbourhood vibrates with its departure and return.
- The Brotherhood of La Soledad de San Lorenzo: Another of the greats of Good Friday. Its Virgin, dressed in mourning, conveys a deep sadness that connects with the deepest feelings of the Passion. It is a brotherhood with a very elegant procession and an exit that is worth seeing at least once in a lifetime.
🕯️ What are the brotherhoods and how are they organised in Holy Week 2025?
To understand the Holy Week 2025 in Seville, you need to know its true protagonists: the brotherhoods. In Seville there are more than 60 brotherhoods that make their "estación de penitencia" (which is the official name for the procession) during Holy Week. Each has its own history, its own devotion and its own identity signs.
The brotherhoods are divided into two large groups:
- Penitential Brotherhoods: These are the ones that process during Holy Week. They carry mystery floats (which represent scenes from the Passion, such as Christ carrying the cross, the Last Supper or the Crucifixion) and floats of Christ or the Virgin (the latter are usually "palio" floats, authentic works of art embroidered in gold).
- Gloria Brotherhoods: They do not process during Holy Week, but they have their services and processional exits throughout the year, such as the Virgin of Rocío or the Virgin of los Reyes.
Within each brotherhood there are different figures that make the procession possible:
- Nazarenos: They are the penitents who parade in a tunic, hood and candle. They walk praying or in silence, doing penance.
- Costaleros: They are the soul of the procession. They carry the floats on their shoulders, which can weigh up to 2 tons. They go under the float, guided by the voice of the "capataz" (foreman), and advance to the rhythm of the marches.
- Capataces (Foremen): They are the ones who direct the float, giving orders to the costaleros to lift, walk, stop or navigate the obstacles in the streets.
- Music Bands: They accompany the floats with processional marches. Behind the Christ floats, there are usually bands of bugles and drums (with a more solemn and mystical sound), and behind the palio floats, music bands (with a more melodic repertoire).
🗺️ The route of Holy Week 2025: The Official Route (Carrera Oficial)
Each brotherhood makes its "estación de penitencia" from its headquarters (a church or chapel) to the Seville Cathedral, passing through what is known as the Official Route (Carrera Oficial). This is the route that all brotherhoods must follow and which passes through such emblematic streets as:
- La Campana (where the Official Route begins)
- Sierpes Street (one of the most commercial and narrowest)
- Avenida de la Constitución (next to the Cathedral)
It is along the Official Route where the chairs and boxes are placed, and where most of the public gathers. But if you want to experience the real Holy Week, I recommend you move away from the centre and go into the neighbourhoods: Triana, La Macarena, San Lorenzo or El Cerro. That's where you see the authentic emotion, the devotion of the locals and the true dimension of what this festival means.
🌙 La Madrugá (The Early Hours): The most intense night
If there is one moment that defines the Seville Holy Week, it is La Madrugá. It is the night from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday, and the most emblematic brotherhoods parade through the streets:
- El Silencio (The Silence): One of the oldest, with a Christ from the 16th century. Its procession takes place in absolute silence, broken only by the sound of a call. It is overwhelming.
- Jesús del Gran Poder: An icon of the city. Its Christ, a work by Juan de Mesa, is one of the most venerated images. Seeing it leave from Plaza de San Lorenzo is impressive.
- La Macarena: The queen of La Madrugá. Its Virgin of Hope, with her embroidered mantle and her sorrowful face, arouses true passions. The wait to see her can last for hours, but it is worth it.
- El Calvario (Calvary): Its Christ of Love, crucified, conveys a unique serenity and beauty. It is one of the brotherhoods with the most tradition.
📅 Key dates for Holy Week 2025
So you can organise yourself, here are the most important dates for Holy Week 2025 in Seville:
- Palm Sunday (13th April): Brotherhoods like La Borriquita process, with children dressed as Hebrews. It is the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
- Holy Monday (14th April): La Candelaria and El Beso de Judas stand out.
- Holy Tuesday (15th April): El Cerro del Águila and San Esteban are the most crowded.
- Holy Wednesday (16th April): El Buen Fin and La Lanzada.
- Maundy Thursday (17th April): Los Negritos (one of the oldest, founded by black people and mulattos in the 15th century) and La Exaltación.
- Good Friday (18th April): (during the day) La Carretería and El Sol.
- Holy Saturday (19th April): La Soledad de San Lorenzo is one of the most emotional, with its Virgin in mourning.
- Easter Sunday (20th April): La Resurrección closes Holy Week with a more joyful atmosphere.
🎨 The Floats (Pasos): Living sculptures
The floats are one of the most impressive parts of Holy Week. We are talking about authentic works of art on wheels, carved in wood, gilded, embroidered and adorned with flowers. There are two main types:
- Mystery Floats: They represent scenes from the Passion. For example, the float of the Brotherhood of La Macarena represents the moment when Christ falls with the cross. That of Los Gitanos, the crowning with thorns.
- Palio Floats: They carry the Virgin under an embroidered canopy, surrounded by candles and flowers. It is impressive to see the mastery with which the costaleros handle these authentic ships in narrow streets, full of obstacles, and with the added difficulty of impossible turns.
🎶 Bands, Saetas and Tradition
Music bands are an essential part of the soundscape of Holy Week 2025. Behind the floats, they play processional marches that send shivers down your spine. In brotherhoods like El Silencio, there is no band, only the sound of muffled drums and the silence broken by a call.
The saetas are another unique moment. They are improvised flamenco songs sung to the floats from a balcony or from the street. Seeing the procession stop to listen to a saeta, with that silence broken by a raw voice, is something you will never forget. The Triana and La Macarena neighbourhoods are especially known for their saeteros (saeta singers).
👑 What does Holy Week 2025 represent for Seville?
For Seville, Holy Week 2025 is not just a religious festival. It is part of its identity, its DNA. It is the expression of a collective feeling that transcends the purely religious to become culture, art, tradition and a way of understanding life.
The smell of incense that floods the streets, the sound of drums and bugles, the singing of saetas, the slow step of the costaleros, the endless wait to see a Virgin, the emotional faces of the people... All of that is Seville in Holy Week 2025.
Last 1st March 2025, the Official Poster of Holy Week 2025 was presented, which sought not to enter into controversy, as its predecessor did in 2024.
🏨 Experience Holy Week 2025 with THE SUN PLACES
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