Experience Easter Week in Mallorca

The celebration of Easter Week is an extraordinary opportunity to get to know a different side of the island, in which religion and gastronomy take centre stage. There are processions in many of the towns on Mallorca (Inca, Sineu, Sóller, Bunyola, Calvià...), although the most numerous are those that take place in Palma. A large number of brotherhoods take part in them, and they are followed by a large number of people in the streets of the city, something that may even increase this year because both in 2021 and 2020 they could not be held due to the pandemic. All this, of course, rain permitting.

The first of the processions is Palm Sunday. Then, on Monday 11th April, three processions will be held in Palma: the Sant Crist de l'Agonia procession from the Convent of Santa Clara (8.30 pm); the Sant Crist del Boters procession at 9 pm; and at 10 pm the Nostra Senyora de la Esperança i la Pau procession from the Basilica of Sant Francesc. On Tuesday at 9 p.m. the procession of the Virgen Dolorosa will start from the Church of San Nicolás, and on Wednesday at 8.30 p.m. the procession of the Santo Cristo de Santa Creu and at 9 p.m. the procession of the Camino de Getsemaní from the Church of the Sagrado Corazón. On Thursday at 7 p.m., one of the most traditional processions will start from the Church of the Annunciation, the Sant Crist de la Sang, and on Friday, also at 7 p.m., the procession of the Sant Enterrament will start from the Basilica of Sant Francesc.

Parallel to the religious celebrations, there are a series of gastronomic traditions that are particularly important on the island due to their deep-rootedness and peculiarity. In Mallorca it is customary, during Easter, to accompany the celebrations with typical Easter products such as panades, robiols and crespells. These are delicacies with an ancestral, family recipe, made with the island's most genuine products.

Panades are unleavened dough pastries, cylindrical in shape and closed, which can be filled with lamb or pork, but also with peas or fish. The dough is made with flour, lard and egg, with optional ingredients such as orange juice or olive oil. In some ovens and homes they are also made with sweet dough, adding sugar to the dough.

Robiols are pieces of fine dough made with flour, olive oil, lard and egg. They are semicircular in shape, covered with icing sugar and have various fillings: strawberry or apricot jam, angel's hair, cream, cottage cheese or chocolate. These pastries are probably of Jewish origin, as Sephardic cuisine has very similar sweets called borekas.

Finally, crespells are dry pastries made with flour, egg, lard, olive oil and sugar -some people add orange or lemon juice or grated peel. The most typical ones are in the shape of a flower or star.

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