San Sebastián is preparing to recover the Holy Week processions, a tradition deeply rooted in the city’s religious history and absent for several decades, thanks to an initiative driven from the Buen Pastor parish and supported by Donostia faithful, as reported by the Diocese itself.
The processions were part of the city’s religious life from at least the 16th century, traversing the streets of the Old Town and accompanying popular faith for centuries. However, the social and cultural changes of the 20th century caused their progressive disappearance, until they were last celebrated in 1966.
A tradition taking shape again
Almost a hundred years after the foundation of the Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus Nazareno, created in 1927 and which will celebrate its centenary next year, a group of faithful has decided to resume this public manifestation of faith, not as a nostalgic recreation, but as a living and updated reactivation of a Catholic tradition.
The promoters emphasize that it is not about inventing anything new, but about recovering a spiritual heritage from an open, participatory, and intergenerational perspective, in which families, young people, and the elderly can get involved.
From the Buen Pastor parish, the origin of the initiative, it is highlighted that Holy Week can once again be a space for encounter, public expression of faith, and popular culture, lived with simplicity, closeness, and a sense of community.
Good Friday, an awaited event
The procession will be held on Good Friday, April 3, at 8:30 p.m., and will traverse the main streets of the city. In this first edition, five scenes of the Passion have been planned, carefully selected, which will allow the faithful to accompany Christ in the central moments of his path to the Cross.
The choice of a more reduced format responds to the desire to start with prudence, establishing the initiative with serenity and ensuring that the procession can be experienced with recollection and spiritual sense, without losing the symbolic richness that has always characterized these celebrations.
An open invitation to the entire city
The project will be publicly presented on the first Friday of Lent, February 20, from which moment any person who wishes can join the Brotherhood and actively participate in the preparation and celebration of Holy Week.
The organizers recognize that the path is just beginning and that there is much to do, so they invite the people of Donostia to join by contributing time, ideas, and enthusiasm, with the desire that this initiative contributes to rekindling faith, strengthening the Christian community, and returning to the streets of San Sebastián a tradition that is part of its identity.