Holy Week in Spain, tourist interest for the Spanish course students.

The international students who arrive in Spain to study a Spanish course have to know that there is a declaration: «Fiesta of International Tourist Interest», distinction granted by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism to the fiestas or events that suppose some type of expression of cultural values and of popular tradition. The requirements demanded for the award include the age of the celebration, its originality, continuity in time, its popular support and citizen’s participation, in an extensive procedure.

The celebration of the Holy Week in some Spanish cities, for its spectacular character, the participation and great atmosphere, have achieved this distinction of Tourist Interest. This makes them attractive for the tourist looking for religious acts as well as for the tourist who is surprised by these acts and by the nice atmosphere in any part of the city. The cities that have this distinction for the Holy Week are: Cáceres, Cartagena, Cuenca, Hellín, León, Lorca, Málaga, Medina de Rioseco, Medina del Campo, Murcia, Orihuela, Palencia, Salamanca, Sevilla, Granada, Valladolid and Zamora. On this Wikipedia page you can access the information and some links with information on each one of them directly.

In 2013 Easter coincides with Sunday 31st of March. Easter day always falls on a Sunday, but to know which day it is each year you have to refer to some calculation rules from the Council of Nicea, in the year 325, which were reformed at a later date by the monk, erudite and mathematician, Dionysius the Thin, in 525. These rules have been kept until today. Easter coincides with the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring in the north hemisphere, which starts with the spring equinox, on the 21st of March.
If you would like to know the algorithm that allows to discover what Sunday it will be in following years you have to seek Computus, who resolves this date through a formula. You can find details here.

Regarding the Holy Week in Spain, if you want to take advantage of it to do a course of Spanish in Spain and at the same time spend some days of the Holy Week in an International Tourist Interest atmosphere, from Spanish in Tour we will recommend four cities: Seville, Malaga, Cuenca and Valladolid. There are many more with great attraction, but these stand out for their great tradition.

Image: Cofradia VA, by Porquenopuedo http://goo.gl/xrrJY

 

Tags: tourism

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 21st, 2013 at 18:26 and is filed under Leisure time, Spanish culture, Spanish language courses in Spain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.