First signs

The first written news that we have about the processions that commemorated Easter in seafaring Valencia date back to the beginning of the 18th century, in El Grao, where undocumented news goes back to the time of San Vicente Ferrer, in the 15th century.

Since then, when spring approaches, the neighbours of Grao, Canyamelar and Cabanyal get ready to celebrate their big feast in their parishes, in their streets and in their houses, in which they will relive the moments of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through a busy programme of events that includes a manifestation of popular religiosity that surprises the numerous public that comes to contemplate it.

Initially, the images that participated in the processions represented the Nazarene, the Christ and his Sorrowful Mother . This trilogy of images represents the clearest manifestation of the relationship of the Semana Santa Marinera with the sea.

In the suffering of the Nazarene, carrying the cross on the way to Calvary, the sailors were represented when on their boat they withstand the onslaught of storms. The Dolorosa captured the pain of women waiting for news of their husbands who know in the middle of a storm. And the Christ showing the image of the most painful and cruel death, nailed to the cross, to whom they entrust themselves, praying for the relatives drowned in the sea.

The presence of these three images in the processions was complemented by the participation of biblical characters , represented by the members of the confraternities who remembered the faithful, and continue to do so today, some of the last moments that Christ lived on earth. Especially moving are the Way of the Cross on Good Friday morning, the encounters with his Mother, with the Veronica woman who wipes the sweat from his face, or the moment of Jesus’ descent from the cross.

Marine Holy Week in the twentieth century

It was not until the first quarter of the 20th century that new brotherhoods appeared with new sculptural groups representing other moments of the passion and death of Jesus. For this reason, the organizers of the party decided to organize three processions in which all the collectives of the party participate together.

In the evening of Thursday, the Visit to the Monuments in which the brotherhoods visit the parishes, accompanied only by the deaf rumor of the drums. On the night of Holy Friday, the Holy Burial when all the collectives with their respective images, beautifully illuminated and adorned with flowers, compose a true plastic catechesis and, at the midday of Easter Sunday, the Resurrection Parade, which offers a cheerful and colorful final touch to the celebrations.

Three collective acts that take place in the streets of the parishioners of the churches of Santa María del Mar; Nuestra Señora del Rosario; Cristo Redentor-San Rafael and Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. They also host the various processions that begin on Friday of Sorrows and end on Easter Sunday.

Contemplating the different processions, the visitor who comes for the first time will be struck by the repetition of images. This is a historical reminiscence that reminds us of when the Maritime was divided into the three population centres already mentioned: Grao; Canyamelar and Cabanyal, each with its own church and, of course, with its own processions.

Holy Week returns every year to the seafaring València, hand in hand with spring. Then, the Maritime one rejuvenates again. Its people and its history are again present in the streets. An invisible force resurfaces everywhere, encouraging the neighbours of this village, born anchored in the sea, to prepare themselves to relive a legacy handed down from generation to generation.