Magna Velez-Malaga

Love Easter in Andalucia and want an extra chance to see it? Then a Magna is your opportunity.

What is a Magna?

A Magna is a huge deal to the Catholic community. This event marks the centenary or in Velez’s case 75th anniversary of the association of brotherhoods or cofradias. It’s a day full of extra special reglious parades or processions around the town. And it’s happening on 15th October 2022 in Velez-Malaga.

What are brotherhoods?

The brotherhoods or cofradias are made up of the Christian faithful. In Velez the brotherhoods are relatively powerful organisations. Each movable float during the Easter processions belongs to a brotherhood. Each brotherhood has its own style, gowns and even identity.

So what’s different from Easter? The Magna is the week of Easter parades in one day! Anyone who has lived in a town or city during Holy Week will know that it is no mean feat to condense the number of processions. The Magna is a huge deal for members of the brotherhoods and so the hotels and restaurants will be full to bursting because of religious tourism. Velez will be absolutely alive the weekend of the 14/15th October 2022.

The week leading up to the Magna there are many processions, these are traslados. These are when the Virgin and Jesus effigies which are part of the parade are moved from their usual resting place (a church or hermitage) to where they are needed to start the procession. Traslados are mini (or not so mini) parades through the town.

So, in short it’s a MASSIVE deal. Here is the itinerary of each procession. If you live in Velez expect a weekend of no sleep and lots of partying!