Elche

**Talk about Easter in Elche**
In Elche **Holy Week** is widely celebrated by all the people. Most of them belong to Lay Brotherhoods or 'Cofradías', but even people who don't belong to any of those are in the streets of the city during the whole week either watching the processions or walking with candles behind them.

Our Holy Week starts on **Palm Sunday** or 'Domingo de Ramos' with a procession which commemorates the entrance of the messiah into Jerusalem carrying olive branches. In Elche, the city of the palm trees, it is celebrated with all the people in the streets carrying our special white palms. Some of them are very elaborated as you can see in the pictures. It’s a very special procession, above all for young people from Elche. First of all, it belongs to a religious school, and only students or ex-students from the school can carry the 'paso' with the statue on their shoulders. Besides, the beginning of the parade is really special. It starts in the gardens of the school without any light and with some specific sentences, as you can watch (and listen) in the following video. media type="youtube" key="hWX53xPdJss" height="285" width="383" align="center"
 * [[image:semanasantadehellin/trono_dom_ram.jpg width="370" height="269"]] || [[image:semanasantadehellin/palma_blanca.jpg width="333" height="269" align="left"]] ||
 * Christ of Love or 'Cristo del Amor' **

All the youth from Elche concentrate there to see it and most people are moved by it. Moreover, it’s a procession which walks through the narrow streets of the city centre from 1am to 5am on Good Friday, as a kind of ‘vía crucis’ and it has a lot of followers (people who walk with candles behind it). The simplicity of the sculpture makes this parade even more special since you can see the real cause and value of the acting.
 * = [[image:semanasantadehellin/cristo_amor_trono+.jpg width="377" height="267"]] ||= [[image:semanasantadehellin/xto_amor_velas.jpg width="389" height="260"]] ||

** 'Virgen de la Esperanza' and 'Cristo de la Fe' ** These two 'pasos' represent for adults and seniors what Cristo del Amor does for youngsters. People believe in them and follow them with faith and devotion. The exit from their church is very emotional with the Spanish anthem played by the band, as it is the meeting between the two 'pasos' in Elche’s main square, as you can see in the following videos.
 * media type="youtube" key="oalo-g9_muQ" height="293" width="370" align="center"

This is the entrance of the Virgen to the city's main square, Plaza de Baix. || media type="youtube" key="JGeqesZYL28" height="290" width="374"

This video represents the meeting between Christ 'El Cristo de la Fe' and his mother 'La Virgen de la Esperanza'. ||

** Christ of Forgiveness or 'Cristo del Perdón' ** This procession is more recent than the other ones mentioned, but it’s also very popular since it offers forgiveness to one prisoner each year. This person walks with the 'paso' during the entire journey and in Elche’s main square he frees a dove and he’s proclaimed free from its charges and sins.
 * [[image:semanasantadehellin/xto_perdon_solo.jpg width="417" height="344"]] || [[image:semanasantadehellin/preso_paloma.jpg width="267" height="344"]] ||

** 'Procesion de las Aleluyas' on Easter Sunday ** This procession represents the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since this is the happiest day, in Elche we celebrate it by throwing little colourful papers with images of all the different processions, which we called 'aleluyas'.
 * [[image:semanasantadehellin/aleluyas_2.jpg width="359" height="311"]] || [[image:semanasantadehellin/tirando_aleluyas.jpg width="356" height="307"]] ||
 * Aleluyas Procession || People throwing 'aleluyas'. ||

by an Illicitan artist Pepa Ferrández ||
 * = [[image:Iphone_139.jpg width="320" height="424"]] ||= [[image:Iphone_138.jpg width="320" height="423"]] ||
 * = Typical Aleluyas ||= Modern Aleluyas created


 * Mobile Application**

The most original thing about Easter 2012 has been the mobile application which help people follow all the processions. People downloaded this application for free and they could see the timetable of the processions, the history of all Lay Brotherhoods, and what was happening at each moment, where each procession was, etc. So, here we have an example of new technologies combined with old traditions.


 * [[image:app.jpg]] || [[image:semanasantadehellin/app2.jpg]] || [[image:app3.jpg]] ||