Festivals in Granada

The Holy Week that takes place in Granada is much more than the simple celebration of the Christian main week.

It is an authentic declaration of the enormous importance that the reconquest had in Andalusia and its imprint on the local culture.

This large-scale celebration began in the 18th century after countless guild brotherhoods created a rich staging of rituals in their processions.
 

This abundance of brotherhoods generated the creation of the Royal Federation of Brotherhoods of Granada, whose objective is to organize the different processions that take place from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.

This rich and striking tradition became an enormous attraction, not only among devotees and faithful but also among visitors. That is why it has become a true tourist stronghold.

Among the many existing brotherhoods, one of the most popular is that of the Christ of the Gypsies, which processes every Holy Wednesday and whose picturesque procession takes the holders from the centre of the city to the Sacromonte Abbey.
 
Holy Week in Granada was declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest in 2009.
 

The Corpus Christi Fair in Granada is the biggest festival in the city and does not have a fixed date. Instead, it depends on the date of the respective Holy Week, which in turn depends on Jewish Easter, which is a lunar festival.

Therefore, this date is determined based on the Thursday of Corpus Christi, always starting on the Saturday before said Thursday.

The Granada Fair lasts an entire week.
 

The origin of Corpus Christi is found in the Last Supper, on the night of Holy Thursday, when Jesus Christ took the bread and wine as the representation of his body and blood and invited his disciples to eat and drink from it. The celebration of the Corpus Christi festival began in the 12th century.

In this celebration in Granada, three processions stand out. On Wednesday, a procession is directed at children and young people and stars a mannequin of a girl mounted on a dragon called Tarasca. The second, on Thursday morning, Corpus Christi day, is eminently religious but full of folkloric symbolism; Corpus Christi leaves the cathedral in a beautiful cart full of flowers and accompanied by big heads and giants representing Moors and Christians. The last procession, on Sunday afternoon of the following week, is the most sober of the three and lacks the folkloric symbolism of the other two.

The fair as such takes place in the fairgrounds, located in the Amanjáyar neighbourhood. There are abundant tapas booths where tourists can taste delicacies typical of Granada gastronomy, including choto al ajillo, fried fish, stews, sardine skewers, garlic prawns, fried aubergines, ham croquettes, salmorejo, etc.