{"id":4655,"date":"2025-05-14T05:42:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T04:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4655"},"modified":"2025-05-14T05:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T04:52:12","slug":"week-18-santa-faz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4655","title":{"rendered":"Week 18: Santa Faz"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest events of the Alicante calendar is the annual Santa Faz procession, taking place on the second Thursday after Easter. It is a tradition that goes back 500 years and venerates an important relic housed in the monastery of Santa Faz, a piece of cloth allegedly used to wipe the sweat off Jesus’s face during the crucifixion. The day is of course a holiday in Alicante, and this year it fell on May 1st, a national holiday, which made it easier for people from other cities (like nearby Benidorm or Elche) to participate. As a result, more than 350,000 people walked in the procession, roughly equal to the total population of Alicante. The procession begins at 8 a.m. in the main cathedral of Alicante and covers the 8 km to the monastery, located in the northern suburb San Juan (just 3 km from my house) where the relic is placed outside the church and Mass is held on the square at 11. This year, I walked about half of the route to take in the atmosphere, and of course to photograph the procession.<\/p>\n

18_1<\/strong>
\nBut I start a few days before Santa Faz, with a picture from my garden. My mother’s magic cactus, once again, is rewarding us and indicates the arrival of summer:
\n\"DSF0532\"<\/p>\n

18_2<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday afternoon I went for a walk on the beach. It was very windy, even the seagulls had some trouble dealing with the wind:
\n\"DSF0536\"<\/p>\n

18_3<\/strong>
\nA few people did brave the wind:
\n\"DSF0535\"<\/p>\n

18_4<\/strong>
\n\"DSF0547\"<\/p>\n

18_5<\/strong>
\nThen Thursday arrived and it was time for the procession. I cycled towards the centre around 7:30 and joined the procession with about 4-5 km to go. One of the major thoroughfares, Avenida de Denia, is closed to traffic on the day:
\n\"DSF0550\"<\/p>\n

18_6<\/strong>
\nExiting the tunnel:
\n\"DSF0560\"<\/p>\n

18_7<\/strong>
\nThe pilgrims come in all shapes and sizes:
\n\"DSF0557\"<\/p>\n

18_8<\/strong>
\nThere are depictions of the stations of the cross along Avenida de Denia:
\n\"DSF0556\"<\/p>\n

18_9<\/strong>
\nDuring an 8 km walk, it is necessary to take a break from time to time:
\n\"DSF0559\"<\/p>\n

18_10<\/strong>
\nTV coverage:
\n\"DSF0561\"<\/p>\n

18_11<\/strong>
\nTwo- and four-legged pilgrims:
\n\"DSF0563\"<\/p>\n

18_12<\/strong>
\n\"DSF0564\"<\/p>\n

18_13<\/strong>
\nNo particular religious content here, but a commercial opportunity:
\n\"DSF0565\"<\/p>\n

18_14<\/strong>
\nThree heads. No idea what they represent:
\n\"DSF0567\"<\/p>\n

18_15<\/strong>
\nAs the morning goes on, the crowd becomes denser. People queue outside a DIY store to pick up commemorative tiles:
\n\"DSF0569\"<\/p>\n

18_16<\/strong>
\nThe local water company, Aguas de Alicante, hands out–what else–water:
\n\"DSF0574\"<\/p>\n

18_17<\/strong>
\nWhat goes in must go out, eventually:
\n\"DSF0576\"<\/p>\n

18_18<\/strong>
\nThe procession continues:
\n\"DSF0577\"<\/p>\n

18_19<\/strong>
\nNow near the monastery, people are queuing to enter to pass by the relic inside the church. The queue is several hundred meters long:
\n\"DSF0580\"<\/p>\n

18_20<\/strong>
\nSome people are not too bothered about the religious aspects. They just want to sit down and rest after walking 8 km:
\n\"DSF0582\"<\/p>\n

18_21<\/strong>
\nThe pilgrims keep coming:
\n\"DSF0596\"<\/p>\n

18_22<\/strong>
\nThere is a small pedestrian street next to the monastery, usually very quiet but not today:
\n\"DSF0588\"<\/p>\n

18_23<\/strong>
\nA face in the crowd:
\n\"DSF0589\"<\/p>\n

18_24<\/strong>
\nThe same dog and human as in image 12 above, now on the square in front of the church:
\n\"DSF0605\"<\/p>\n

18_25<\/strong>
\nParticularly devoted pilgrims walk barefoot:
\n\"DSF0598\"<\/p>\n

18_26<\/strong>
\nLooking towards the church:
\n\"DSF0595\"<\/p>\n

18_27<\/strong>
\nA priest makes some administrative announcements to the crowd:
\n\"DSF0593\"<\/p>\n

18_28<\/strong>
\nSome pre-Mass entertainment:
\n\"DSF0602\"<\/p>\n

18_29<\/strong>
\nA chat with the cop:
\n\"DSF0586\"<\/p>\n

18_30<\/strong>
\nHaving many thousands of potential customers concentrated in a small area attracts all manner of vendors of trinkets and other stuff:
\n\"DSF0590\"<\/p>\n

18_31<\/strong>
\nThe local bars and restaurants were doing roaring business:
\n\"DSF0606\"<\/p>\n

18_32<\/strong>
\n\"DSF0609\"<\/p>\n

18_33<\/strong>
\nSince Thursday was a public holiday, I had taken Friday off (this is what is referred to as “the bridge” here in Spain). I started the day with an early walk on the beach. As is the case every morning during spring and summer, the beach was being cleaned:
\n\"DSF0614\"<\/p>\n

18_34<\/strong>
\nSaturday morning. The wind is blowing but the air is clear:
\n\"DSF0623\"<\/p>\n

18_35<\/strong>
\nA sun worshipper waiting for sunrise:
\n\"DSF0619\"<\/p>\n

18_36<\/strong>
\nA cloudy sky enhances the sunrise:
\n\"DSF0618\"<\/p>\n

18_37<\/strong>
\n\"DSF0624\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest events of the Alicante calendar is the annual Santa Faz procession, taking place on the second Thursday after Easter. It is a tradition that goes back 500 years and venerates an important relic housed in the monastery of Santa Faz, a piece of cloth allegedly used to wipe the sweat off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4543,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4655"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4655"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4663,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4655\/revisions\/4663"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}