Girona launches a year-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Manaies
03/04/14 | The programme of events planned for the coming months to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Manaies de Girona was presented on 1 April.
In total, some twenty activities have been planned, along with two special parades by the group, the first of which will take place on Saturday 5 April. These events mark the launch of a twelve-month period —until April 2015— during which the Manaies de Girona will take centre stage, as highlighted by the city's mayor, Carles Puigdemont.
The manaies are characters dressed in the style of ancient Roman soldiers who parade through the city accompanying the Holy Week processions. The Manaies de Girona form part of the Confraternity of the Christ Crucified. The organisation was first documented in 1751; since then, it has become a leading body in the social and cultural activity of the city of Girona and Catalonia in general.
Holy Week is marked by a series of celebrations that take place between Friday of Sorrows (the Friday before Palm Sunday) and Easter Sunday. A series of festive activities that includes processions, enactments and other liturgical and ritual practices through which the Christian community commemorates the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Cod as a substitute for meat, prohibited at the start of the tradition during the period between Carnival and Easter, bunyols de Quaresma (sweet Lent fritters), the mona de Pasqua (a chocolate egg) and the typical tortell de Rams cake, made of marzipan, are just some of the typical traditional foods that can be found in any household in Girona during Holy Week.