Spain’s Easter sensation

It is the first stop in Spain for many Irish tourists. But Alicante never attracts the plaudits it deserves. It’s also a perfect place for an Easter break, as Peter Geoghegan finds out.

IN SPAIN, they really know how to celebrate Easter. Over here we commemorate the most significant festival in the liturgical year by going to Mass a couple of times, staying out of the pubs on Good Friday and eating copious amounts of chocolate.

Holy Week, or Semana Santa, is among the most popular festivals in the Spanish calendar, with flamboyant, week-long celebrations taking place in towns and cities up and down the country. And it is in the narrow, winding backstreets of Alicante that I discover some of the most spectacular Easter week tronos (floats carrying lifelike wooden sculptures of biblical scenes and characters) to be found anywhere in Spain.