Segunda Pascua: The Second Easter

The first time I heard a Spanish friend use the term “la Segunda Pascua,” I think I said out loud: “You guys have two Easters? But why?” Obviously, my Catholic Holy Communion prep and several years of non-denominational Christian Sunday School didn’t exactly sink in.

This religious holiday does not include any chocolate bunnies or “monas de pasqua,” and goes by many names: Pascua de Pentecostés (Pentecost Easter), Pentecostés, the Second Easter (Segunda Pascua), Pascua Granada, Pascuillas or, in Catalan, Cinquagesma. Though it’s not celebrated the same way all over the world, it’s an important calendar date for many Christian communities, from North America to Europe to Egypt to New Zealand. In Catalunya and in the other Spanish autonomous communities, certain towns throw notably large celebrations; for example, the Catalan town of Sant Feliu de Pallerols is famous for its dance re-enacting a battle between the Turks and the Christians, which always takes place on the Second Easter. (In parts of Spain, it’s also a day of municipal elections.)

It is always celebrated on the fifth Sunday after the “first” Easter; hence the word “Pentecost,” derived from the Greek word for “five.” According to Christian dogma, the holiday celebrates the appearance of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s disciples: the Gospel of Luke in the Bible says that fifty days after Jesus rose from the grave, the Holy Spirit appeared to his most trusted advisors in the form of tongues of flame, and directed them to evangelize, spreading the Christian gospel across the globe. According to legend, the Holy Spirit also endowed them with the ability to understand all the languages of world, to help them in their quest.

However, as with a number of holidays in the Christian religious calendar, the Second Easter’s historical roots run deeper than they first appear, incorporating a tradition that was important to other, older belief systems. These holy days are known as Shavuot in Jewish tradition. The word in Hebrew means the “feast of weeks,” and is supposed to mark the fiftieth day since God appeared on Mount Sinai to give the Torah to the Jewish people.

And even before some of the major religions of the world claimed these dates as their own, there existed an agrarian celebration giving thanks for the harvest—hence the name “Pascua Granada.” Just as the “first” Easter is referred to as the “Pascua Florida” (the “flowering Easter,” coinciding with the beginning of Spring), the phrase “Pascua Granada” reportedly refers to the pomegranate fruit, called a “granada” in Spanish, or the fruits of the harvest.

Barcelona Celebrates with "Cors Muts"

In Barcelona, Second Easter is celebrated with processions of the cors muts (“mute choirs”) through the local streets, especially in neighborhoods such as El Raval and Barceloneta. The “choirs” are mute because they don’t actually sing during these festivities: they simply wind through the streets wearing traditional and often exaggerated period costumes, eating, drinking and dancing. The people participating in them are usually choral groups, former choral singers and/or organizers of musical parades in their respective neighborhoods.

It was Josep Anselm in the second half of the 19th century who came up with the idea for the choir groups. He wanted to offer local workers some kind of entertaining yet cultural activity as an alternative to spending their afternoons and evenings in the local bars. By the beginning of the 20th century the choir groups had become very popular; singing choral music had become an outlet for the working class and a large part of many Catalan celebrations.

The local tradition of the cors muts supposedly comes from the period of the Franco dictatorship, when these choirs we forbidden from singing. Rather than cancel their celebrations, the choirs silently danced instead—with wild, audacious, satirical dances and costumes. However, other stories claim that the origins of this non-musical parade of musical people is a historical holdover from when church organists were permitted to play whatever songs the public asked for during the hour before High Mass on this particular day of the year.  

The Second Easter is often celebrated in Catalunya with trips into the countryside over the long weekend, or with artisan and craft fairs. The date is also a popular one for religious pilgrimages in various parts of the world, such as the pilgrimage to the Benedictine monastery Aniol d'Aguja in Montagut i Oix (Girona); or from the French commune of Prats-de-Mollo to the Hermitage of Notre Dame du Coral, which has taken place each year since the 15th century. 

This year, Second Easter should take place on May 28th (50 days after Easter Sunday), however, because the municipal elections fall on that date, it has been moved to Sunday, June 4, 2023 and the following day is the segundo Lunes de Pascua, also a regional holiday in Catalunya.

Published May 30, 2022, updated May 22, 2023.