19.01.2023.- The European Network of Holy Week and Easter Celebrations has presented this evening, within the framework of the International Tourism Trade Fair FITUR, the second edition of the European Congress of Holy Week and Easter that will be held on March 2 and 3 at the Palazzo Reale and Oratorio di Santa Elena e Costantino in Palermo, Sicily (Italy).

Organized by the European Network itself in collaboration with the Fondazione Federico II of Sicily (Italy), a partner of the Network, this edition of the Congress will be held in person for the first time. The sessions, whose Scientific Committee is chaired by Professor Ignazio Buttitta, are organized around conferences and round tables, developed by experts from different countries, and registration is free.

During the presentation, the president of the European Network of Holy Week and Easter Celebrations, Juan Ramón Valdivia, stressed the importance of this European Congress whose celebration will also add as a strategic point to achieve recognition as a European Cultural Route in which we are working on”. Likewise, he has insisted on the need to continue working on this type of project, to which are added the Meeting of Brotherhoods and Confraternities or Network Day, which is also organized annually by the European Network and which “help us value the work of the Network whose scientific and social background work, regarding Holy Week, is unquestionable”.

For his part, the coordinator of the Scientific Committee of the European Network of Holy Week and Easter Celebrations, Julio Grande, recalled that “one of the main lines of work of the Network insists on the need to know, investigate and advance in the future of Holy Week from a multidisciplinary approach”.

In addition, representatives of the municipalities that make up the European Network of Holy Week and Easter Celebrations have been present at the presentation; the special advisor of the Cultural Routes Program, Eladio Fernández; and the head of service of the Legal Regime and European Programs Area of ​​the General Subdirectorate for Management and Coordination of Cultural Assets of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain, Sergio Ortega.

Deepen into the European dimension of Holy Week

Holy Week and Easter celebrations are, without any doubt, one of the most vibrant expressions of popular religiosity in Europe. Their broad distribution, the variety of rituals and manifestations and the social involvement created around them make of them one of the subjects that generates more scientific, cultural and social interest.

The European Network of Holy Week and Easter Celebrations works tirelessly to preserve and share this rich heritage. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to perform analysis and research processes that contribute to improving the knowledge of these complex cultural processes and of their bearer communities.

The main aim of this European Congress is to delve into the diverse, as well as shared, European dimension of this heritage. The purpose is to show their reality and what Holy Week and Easter celebrations represent in Europe today, contributing to a better knowledge of the celebrations and to their preservation.

The Second edition of the European Congress will be divided in four areas:

• Educational experiences related to Holy Week and Easter: Schools and museums as instruments to encourage children and youth participation.
• Holy Week and Easter as local development engines.
• Holy Week and Easter as local and European social cohesion elements: the role of the bearer communities.
• Art, theatre and music in Holy Week and Easter traditions: reality, evolution and contemporary expressions.

The purpose of the European Congress, which can be followed live through its website, is to bring together specialists of different nationalities to promote scientific collaboration and exchange over a cornerstone of our common European heritage that is still very much alive today and that gathers, year after year, thousands of devotes, tourists, people interested in the subject and people who are curious to know more.

The registration date for participants ends on February 22, 2023. For its part, the abstract delivery period for speakers ends on February 10, 2023.

More information

Web: https://holyweekconference.eu/es/

Programme: https://holyweekconference.eu/es/programa/

Registration: https://holyweekconference.eu/es/inscripcion/

More about de European Network

The European Network of Holy Week and Easter celebrations was created in 2019 and is made up of the Italian Federico II Foundation, representing the municipalities of Palermo and Caltanissetta, in Sicily (Italy); the municipality of Birgu in Malta; the Commission for Lent and Holy Week Celebrations in Braga, in Portugal; the Representations of the Passion of Christ in Skofja Loka, Slovenia; the municipalities that are part of the Caminos de Pasión route: Alcalá la Real in Jaén, Baena, Cabra, Lucena, Priego de Córdoba and Puente Genil in Córdoba and Carmona, Écija Osuna and Utrera in Seville. Also within the Spanish geography we find Orihuela in Alicante; Lorca in Murcia and Viveiro in Lugo.

Its objective is to promote and disseminate cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, related to the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter through actions that value this heritage, promote sustainable tourism development around it and contribute to the intangible heritage is safeguarded through scientific work and research. In the same way, its main purpose is to combine efforts and synergies to consolidate a model for the study, safeguarding and dissemination of the heritage of the traditions of Holy Week and Easter in Europe.