Holy Week in Verges begins long before the Procession takes to the streets. Rehearsals, preparations and the involvement of every generation shape a tradition that reaches far beyond the performance on Maundy Thursday.
This guide follows the village day by day, from Palm Sunday to Easter Monday. Holy Week commemorates the Passion and death of Jesus; Easter celebrates the Resurrection and opens the Easter season. Here you can explore what each day means and, above all, how it is experienced in Verges.
Follow the full sequence or jump to the day that interests you. Each section links to a more detailed article.
Palm Sunday
The blessing of palms marks the start of Holy Week. In Verges, palm fronds and laurel branches accompany a day of celebration and family traditions. The article describes how the village observes this occasion.
Holy Monday
Rehearsals bring the Procession into the streets and squares before the event itself. Children and adults prepare their parts, offering a glimpse of the collective work that keeps the tradition alive.
Holy Tuesday
Preparations gather pace through rehearsals, costume distribution and the organisation of the Procession’s equipment. This is a chance to understand how the people and groups behind the performance work together.
Holy Wednesday
The eve of the main event brings many of the final preparations and adjustments. As Maundy Thursday approaches, concentration and anticipation build among the participants. The article captures the atmosphere of this last day of preparation.
Maundy Thursday
This is the central day of the Verges Procession. In the Christian tradition it commemorates the Last Supper; in the village it is also a day of shared work, reunions and participation. We divide it into three parts to help you follow the day:
Maundy Thursday morning
The village finishes preparing the spaces, religious statues and elements of the performance. In the carrer dels Cargols, residents arrange the snail shells that will light the street at night.
Maundy Thursday afternoon
The manages, the local name for the Roman soldiers, announce the main events with drums and trumpets. Their parade and the collection of the Procession’s religious statues form the first stages of the day’s public celebrations.
Maundy Thursday night
The Passion play in the plaça Major and the Procession through the streets are the two main parts of the evening. The Dance of Death and the carrer dels Cargols are among the features that give this night its distinctive character.
Good Friday
After the intensity of the previous night, Verges returns to a quieter rhythm. There is time to rest, tidy up and return the religious statues to their places. In the Christian calendar, this day commemorates the death of Jesus on the cross.
Holy Saturday
The Processó dels Petits puts children at the centre of the tradition as they perform the Passion and parade through the village in their own version of the event. In the Christian calendar, Saturday is also a day of waiting before the celebration of Easter.
Easter Sunday
The celebration of the Resurrection opens the Easter season. In Verges, it is a day for family traditions, reunions and the mona de Pasqua, the Catalan Easter cake, with a more restful atmosphere after the preparations and performances.
Easter Monday
The communal rice meal and the final shared tasks form part of the close of the local festivities. The village comes together after the many hours devoted to making the Procession possible, while the Easter season continues beyond this day.
The work behind each day
The visible calendar does not explain all the preparations. Maite Poch Roviras remembers the women who made and checked costumes, and the checks on complete sets when they were issued and returned. A scene might last only a few minutes, but costumes required work that began before the performance and continued afterwards.
Pere Maspoch describes setting up, assigning responsibilities, and preparing and removing torches. He also recalls later meetings to discuss what had worked and what needed improving. Quim Carolà Marull adds the perspective of craft work and renewing equipment.
Concepció Nadal Coloma describes the work of the pabordesses, women involved in collecting donations and decorating the statues. Her memories show that the Procession was also made possible in people’s homes and through neighbours’ contributions, rather than solely on stage.
These recollections concern different lives and periods. They cannot assign all sewing to a fixed day or turn every remembered task into the current programme. This guide’s sections follow the celebration’s cycle; timings and the precise sequence of events must be checked for each edition.
In Verges i la processó que no es veu (1998, pp. 76–80 and 137–138), Màriam Serrà mainly describes Holy Week in 1996: rehearsals and the atmosphere of preparation on Monday; the dress rehearsal, costume distribution and moving the religious statues on Tuesday; and clearing up and returning the images, among other tasks, on Friday. This describes that edition, rather than an unchanging programme.
Sources for this addition: interviews with Maite Poch Roviras, Pere Maspoch, Quim Carolà Marull and Concepció Nadal Coloma in the Memòria Viva La Processó project, analysed as part of this research. For the next edition, consult the official guide.
Planning your visit
For each edition’s schedule and information on attending the performance, see these pages:
Explore the wider calendar
These guides explain how the date of Easter is calculated and introduce the celebrations surrounding Holy Week, placing the village’s traditions in a wider context.
