Monóvar deserves to be visited also during Holy Week, where the different processions take place from Palm Sunday, until the end of Easter Sunday. Holy Week in Monóvar is considered by visitors as one of the most beautiful in the province of Alicante. Holy Week in Monóvar has great roots and tradition.
Palm Sunday congregates a multitude of monoveros that carry in their hands the traditional white palms with olive branches. This procession dates back to 1968, the year in which the image of Jesus was blessed on the back of a borrico, on his float.
The image represents the entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, while the people stretched their mantles and olive branches along the way, just as they used to receive the kings.
The procession leaves from the Church of the Capuchin Convent, once the blessing of the palms has been carried out, and passes through the streets of the town to the Church of San Juan Bautista. The procession is opened by a children’s drum band, consisting of girls and boys belonging to all the brotherhoods and brotherhoods of Monóvar.
Throughout Holy Week, around 2000 people gathered in the different brotherhoods, break into the night and parade in procession through narrow and steep streets of the town center, accompanied by their bands of bugles and drums.
On Holy Monday, processions the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher and Jesus Captive, with the image of Jesus Captive. Brotherhood founded in 1941.
The image of Jesús Cautivo, is carved in cedar wood from Lebanon, polychrome, dating from 2007, by Victor García Villalgordo, stages the scene of Christ presented before the people, tied by hands.
The image of the Holy Sepulcher, procession on Good Friday in the procession of the Holy Burial. It sets the image of Christ Lying in his sepulchral slab, on the holy sheet, which partially covers his body. It is carved in polychrome pine wood in oil, made by Jose Maria Alarcón in 1944 and restored in 2002 by Mónica Navarro Gonzálvez.
The throne consists of four six-and-a-half-meter varales, lined in purple velvet, each with hand-carved beech wood finishes, made in 2005. Ornamented in large wind wood carving, covered in Gold leaf, on each two phoenix birds are contemplated on the side, as a symbol of the resurrection, and the symbols of the bald, the ladder, the whip and the crown of thorns are represented in the corners. It is carried by forty costaleros. The floral arrangement is done in banking and purple flower.
On Holy Tuesday, processions Cofradía de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno (the Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus Nazarene), brotherhood that was born in 1943.
The image of Our Father Jesus Nazareno, is a polychrome wood carving with fine oil and glaze technique, attributed to the imagery workshops in Valcárcel. Habit made with purple velvet with embossed embroidery in gold and golden cingulate. Cylindrical wooden cross with silver finishes.
The throne is a processional float dating from 1951, made of carved wood with motifs of the Passion and ornamented with gold leaf, illuminated with four candlesticks and six golden lanterns. In 2009 the carriage becomes a throne to shoulder. The floral ornament is red roses, anturius, liatris, carnations and status.
On Holy Wednesday, they procession the brotherhoods of Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Solitude, each of them with a different route, but each year they stage a meeting between the two images, this year this will be held in the Plaza de room.
The brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows, was born in 1946. The size dates from 1947 and was the work of Don José María Alarcón Pina, sculptor Monovero. The descent of Christ is staged, reflecting the moment when Jesus is taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of Mary. Carved in polychrome wood in green, raw and red colors, with a great naturalness of the color embodied with the corresponding bloody in both bodies.
The throne is made of mahogany wood from India, hand carved forming plant motifs. Composed of four triangles that protrude from the bottom of the four sides as well as the top. In the center of each triangle we find a shield with a religious symbology. In the four corners we observe four eagles with the open wings and beak that hold the censers and behind them, four lighting towers adorned with simple plant motifs and with a total of seventy-two decorated glass tulips. The floral ornament is with Llium oriental in yellow with a red heart, red roses, alelí and wax flower.
The confessor of Nostra Senyora de la Solitud is to be founded in 1943. Dress size of La nostra Senyora de la Solitud, from mitjan the segle XVIII, d’autor disconnegut, recovered after the civil war. Dressed in mantell in vellut negre brodat in silver by Messrs. Remedies Rico Sánchez, Catalina Maestre and Elena Albert and students of the Convent de les Calasancias. Porta les mans the crown d’arços and els tres claus de Crist.
Caminas realitzades in fusta de cedre recoberta in silver pa, carvings in l’any 2004 pel Taller d’art religiós Salmerón S.L. Tron rematat per quatre canelobres metàl·lics amb windshield. This is the port per quaranta portants to l’estil malagueny. L’adorn floral is made of white roses on the front, and on the back and sided with a variety of white flowers.
The Dijous Sant is the Processó del Silenci, between the Germandat of the Santíssim Crist Crucificat and Maria Santíssima de l’Esperança., Founded in 1940.
The image of the Holy Christ Crucified is carved in polychrome wood and dates from 1946, was made by Jose María Alarcón Pina. The throne is made of gilded wood with silver. It is carried by sixty Malaga-style Costaleros. It is adorned by a mantle of red carnations and white lilies at the feet. On Good Friday the lilies are replaced by red roses.
The image of María Santísima de la Esperanza, is a painful image to wear, the work of Fernando Aguado Hernández of 2010. The throne consists of a Palio Pass with varales embossed by Andalusian Goldsmiths. It is carried by sixty coastal Malaga-style. It is adorned with white flower and white wax flower in the Palio Pass.
On Good Friday, at 7:30 p.m. the procession of the Holy Burial begins, where they procession all the brotherhoods that make up the current Junta Mayor. When entering the last brotherhood to the Church of San Juan Bautista, inside the brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher stages the burial of Jesus, I feel this an act of great emotion that is worth knowing.
On the morning of Easter Sunday, one of the most emotional acts for the monoveros happens, it is the traditional Holy Encounter, which takes place in the popular setting of the Plaza de la Malva where the encounter of María con Jesús Resucitado (Mary with the Risen Jesus) is staged.