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No 1017 Tuesday 2nd - Sunday 7th April 2024
637 227 385
The Costa Blanca’s oldest ‘FREE’ English language newspaper - WITH THE LARGEST LOCAL CIRCULATION
SEE PAGE 5
WEATHER FAILS TO DAMPEN O R I H U E L A ’ S H O LY W E E K oly Week in Orihuela is one of the most outstanding religious and cultural spectacles in Spain. It was granted the status of International Tourist Interest back in 2010 and has a series of remarkable features that make it unique with the Holy Entombment procession (Holy burial of Christ) on Holy Saturday a highlight of the week, where the Caballero Cubierto (the Covered Knight) is given the privilege of carrying a black banner bearing town’s motto, during the oldest Easter Week procession.
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Nominated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, it is possibly the most distinctive procession during Orihuela’s Holy Week, as it represents official mourning, during which the entire local government takes part. This is the procession that many residents eagerly look forward to every year. The reason is that the world famous statue 'The triumph of the cross' also called La Diablesa or the 'She devil' (a cross that sits on a globe, flanked by a skeleton to one side, and a devil with breasts, on the other), as it is carried through the streets, a work of art that dates back to 1696 and is so special, with its deep alchemical representation, that it is extensively featured every year on news bulletins across the whole of Spain. With sombre respect and reflection, Orihuela silently welcomed the Holy Entombment parade like a painful mantilla, with sadness, but also with hope for the rising of Christ on Easter Sunday, in an experience that was full of faith, devotion, tradition and art. Men dressed in morning coats and women in black mantilla dresses paraded through the streets and into the Cathedral, with all levels of Oriola society taking part.
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