SeasonMap

Easter & Holy Week, month by month around the world

Processions, closures, and the first crowds of spring.

170 destinations on SeasonMap, ranked within each month by the comfort score — because the point is not only where the season is on, but whether the weather is worth the trip while it is.

← All seasons · The world's calendar

When it is on

Number of destinations with easter & holy week on in that month. Windows move a little each year.

Easter & Holy Week in January

  1. 🇵🇸 Jericho, PalestineEpiphany at the Jordan · 16–20 Jan (usually)Orthodox pilgrims come down to the baptism site at Qasr al-Yahud for the blessing of the water.81climate

What's on around the world in January →

Easter & Holy Week in February

  1. 🇬🇹 Antigua Guatemala, GuatemalaLenten processions · 15 Feb – 27 Mar (usually)Each Sunday of Lent one of the churches walks its own procession, with a velacion in the days before it.91climate

What's on around the world in February →

Easter & Holy Week in March

  1. 🇲🇦 Marrakesh, MoroccoEaster week · 25 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)European school holidays fill the riads at the best time of year for the medina.94climate
  2. 🇲🇽 Mazatlán, MexicoSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Mexican school holidays land on Holy Week and the whole of Sinaloa and Durango drives to this beach.93climate
  3. 🇵🇭 Baguio, PhilippinesHoly Week · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)The single busiest week of the Baguio year — booked months ahead, with much of Manila in town and the churches full from Thursday.92climate
  4. 🇳🇿 Auckland, New ZealandEaster coastal exodus · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)Four days off send the city north to the coastal towns and the Coromandel.91climate
  5. 🇬🇹 Guatemala City, GuatemalaSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 15 Apr (usually)The capital empties for the week — to Antigua, to the coast, to Atitlán — and the processions that stay are in Zona 1.91climate
  6. 🇲🇽 Guanajuato, MexicoViernes de Dolores and Holy Week · 15 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)On the Friday before Palm Sunday the old mine works, plazas and shop doorways fill with flower altars and people hand out ice water and paletas in the street.91climate
  7. 🇲🇽 San Miguel de Allende, MexicoSemana Santa · 14 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Two weeks of processions rather than one, starting with the Senor de la Columna walked in from Atotonilco before dawn on the Sunday before Palm Sunday.91climate
  8. 🇲🇽 Mexico City, MexicoSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)The capital empties for the week as families head to the coast, which makes it the easiest the traffic ever gets.90climate
  9. 🇦🇺 Canberra, AustraliaNational Folk Festival · 28 Mar – 12 Apr (usually)Five days over Easter at Exhibition Park, with a campground that turns into a small town for the weekend.90climate
  10. 🇲🇽 Sayulita, MexicoSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Mexican school holidays put the whole of Jalisco and Nayarit on this beach for two weeks, and the village of two thousand behaves like a town of twenty.89climate
  11. 🇲🇽 Puerto Vallarta, MexicoSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)The busiest domestic week of the year, when Guadalajara empties onto this coast.88climate
  12. 🇲🇽 Morelia, MexicoSemana Santa · 28 Mar – 12 Apr (usually)Michoacan takes Holy Week seriously: silent processions through the stone centre here, and the older Purepecha rites out at Tzintzuntzan on the lake.88climate
  13. 🇰🇪 Nairobi, KenyaEaster travel week · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays and Nairobi empties towards the coast and the up-country homes.87climate
  14. 🇪🇸 Alicante, SpainSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Madrid and the interior come to the coast for the week and the Costa Blanca season effectively starts here, several weeks before the sea is worth getting into.87climate
  15. 🇱🇧 Beirut, LebanonEaster, twice · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Lebanon keeps both calendars, so the country effectively takes two Easters some years and the closures are spread across several weeks.86climate
  16. 🇺🇾 Montevideo, UruguaySemana de Turismo · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Uruguay takes Holy Week off under a secular name and leaves town; the capital is shut and quiet while the Criolla del Prado runs gaucho rodeo at the fairground.86climate
  17. 🇺🇾 Punta del Este, UruguaySemana de Turismo · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Uruguay's Easter week is a full national week off and the last busy stretch before the coast shuts down.86climate
  18. 🇲🇽 Oaxaca, MexicoSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Mexican families fill the city and the valley villages for the week, and the processions in Ocotlan and Tlacolula are the ones worth driving out for.86climate
  19. 🇲🇽 Guadalajara, MexicoSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 22 Apr (usually)Offices and much of the centre shut for the week and the city empties towards Chapala and the Pacific coast, which makes Guadalajara itself unusually pleasant to walk.86climate
  20. 🇨🇷 Monteverde, Costa RicaSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 15 Apr (usually)Costa Ricans come up off the coast for a cooler week and every room along the ridge goes.86climate
  21. 🇬🇹 Panajachel, GuatemalaSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 15 Apr (usually)Guatemalans fill Calle Santander and every lancha on the lake, and the villages around the shore each run their own processions over carpets of dyed sawdust.86climate
  22. 🇮🇹 Syracuse, ItalyHoly Week · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)Processions through Ortigia's lanes and the first week the sea-front tables come out.86climate
  23. 🇵🇹 Tavira, PortugalEaster week · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)The eastern Algarve's first busy week, when Portuguese families open up the holiday flats and the island ferries go back to a full timetable.86climate
  24. 🇵🇸 Bethlehem, PalestineHoly Week and Easter · 20 Mar – 5 May (usually)Palm Sunday to Easter, with the Western and Eastern dates usually a week or so apart and pilgrims walking the road from Jerusalem for both.86climate
  25. 🇬🇷 Athens, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 28 Mar – 5 May (usually)Athens empties for a week as the city goes back to the villages.85climate

…and 115 more in March.

What's on around the world in March →

Easter & Holy Week in April

  1. 🇮🇱 Jerusalem, IsraelHoly Week and Easter · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Western and Orthodox Easter often fall a week or more apart, so the Old City runs two sets of processions.96climate
  2. 🇨🇾 Limassol, CyprusOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 5 May (usually)Shops and offices shut from Good Friday and the city goes to the villages in the Troodos foothills.96climate
  3. 🇵🇸 Bethlehem, PalestineHoly Week and Easter · 20 Mar – 5 May (usually)Palm Sunday to Easter, with the Western and Eastern dates usually a week or so apart and pilgrims walking the road from Jerusalem for both.96climate
  4. 🇨🇾 Paphos, CyprusOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 5 May (usually)The biggest week of the Cypriot year: bonfires outside the village churches on the Saturday night, lamb on the Sunday, and everything except the tavernas shut for two days.94climate
  5. 🇪🇸 Seville, SpainSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Sixty brotherhoods walk from their churches to the cathedral over eight days and nights.94climate
  6. 🇱🇧 Beirut, LebanonEaster, twice · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Lebanon keeps both calendars, so the country effectively takes two Easters some years and the closures are spread across several weeks.94climate
  7. 🇪🇸 Málaga, SpainSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)Malaga's processions are the heaviest in Spain — thrones carried by two hundred men, moving through the centre from afternoon into the small hours all week.94climate
  8. 🇬🇷 Nafplio, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The Good Friday epitaphios processions come down through the marble streets to the waterfront, and the whole of Athens seems to have booked the same weekend.94climate
  9. 🇬🇷 Athens, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 28 Mar – 5 May (usually)Athens empties for a week as the city goes back to the villages.93climate
  10. 🇬🇷 Heraklion, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Shops, museums and half the restaurants shut from Good Friday through Easter Monday while the villages roast lamb.93climate
  11. 🇬🇷 Rhodes, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Greeks travel for it, so the ferries and the island hotels fill before the foreign season starts.93climate
  12. 🇨🇾 Nicosia, CyprusOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Shops, museums and offices in the south close for the long weekend and the city empties towards the villages and the coast.93climate
  13. 🇱🇧 Byblos, LebanonHoly Week · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Byblos is a Christian town and Holy Week is its serious season, with processions out of the old churches and the port restaurants opening properly for the first time since autumn.93climate
  14. 🇲🇦 Marrakesh, MoroccoEaster week · 25 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)European school holidays fill the riads at the best time of year for the medina.92climate
  15. 🇬🇷 Santorini, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 5 May (usually)The villages fill for the week: an effigy burned in Pyrgos on the Saturday, lamb on the Sunday, and the island open for business a fortnight early.92climate
  16. 🇬🇷 Mykonos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The island's real new year: Greek visitors arrive, the first hotels unshutter and Chora goes from village to resort inside a week.92climate
  17. 🇸🇾 Damascus, SyriaEaster in Bab Touma · 25 Mar – 10 May (usually)The Christian quarter marks both Easters, and in most years the Western and Eastern Sundays fall a week apart.92climate
  18. 🇪🇸 Alicante, SpainSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Madrid and the interior come to the coast for the week and the Costa Blanca season effectively starts here, several weeks before the sea is worth getting into.92climate
  19. 🇪🇸 Cádiz, SpainSemana Santa · 20 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)Brotherhoods take the narrow streets of the casco antiguo every night of the week and traffic stops with them.92climate
  20. 🇬🇷 Chania, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The biggest weekend of the Greek year: the villages fill with returning families, lamb goes on the spit on Sunday and shops shut for days around it.92climate
  21. 🇮🇹 Syracuse, ItalyHoly Week · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)Processions through Ortigia's lanes and the first week the sea-front tables come out.92climate
  22. 🇬🇷 Paros, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The Ekatontapyliani in Parikia is one of the oldest churches in Greece and it fills for the Friday epitaphios.92climate
  23. 🇵🇹 Tavira, PortugalEaster week · 20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually)The eastern Algarve's first busy week, when Portuguese families open up the holiday flats and the island ferries go back to a full timetable.92climate
  24. 🇬🇷 Kos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The first weekend the island wakes up: Greek families come out from Athens and the Dodecanese, the tavernas in Kos town reopen for it, and the spit-roasts are on the Sunday.91climate
  25. 🇬🇷 Zakynthos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Zakynthos keeps a Venetian-influenced Easter with brass bands behind the epitaphios, and the island opens for the season the same week the charter flights restart.91climate

…and 144 more in April.

What's on around the world in April →

Easter & Holy Week in May

  1. 🇨🇾 Paphos, CyprusOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 5 May (usually)The biggest week of the Cypriot year: bonfires outside the village churches on the Saturday night, lamb on the Sunday, and everything except the tavernas shut for two days.95climate
  2. 🇬🇷 Paros, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The Ekatontapyliani in Parikia is one of the oldest churches in Greece and it fills for the Friday epitaphios.95climate
  3. 🇬🇷 Heraklion, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Shops, museums and half the restaurants shut from Good Friday through Easter Monday while the villages roast lamb.94climate
  4. 🇬🇷 Santorini, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 5 May (usually)The villages fill for the week: an effigy burned in Pyrgos on the Saturday, lamb on the Sunday, and the island open for business a fortnight early.94climate
  5. 🇬🇷 Mykonos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The island's real new year: Greek visitors arrive, the first hotels unshutter and Chora goes from village to resort inside a week.94climate
  6. 🇬🇷 Zakynthos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Zakynthos keeps a Venetian-influenced Easter with brass bands behind the epitaphios, and the island opens for the season the same week the charter flights restart.94climate
  7. 🇬🇷 Athens, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 28 Mar – 5 May (usually)Athens empties for a week as the city goes back to the villages.93climate
  8. 🇬🇷 Rhodes, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Greeks travel for it, so the ferries and the island hotels fill before the foreign season starts.93climate
  9. 🇪🇸 Salamanca, SpainLunes de Aguas · 30 Mar – 5 May (usually)The Monday after Easter Monday, when the whole city takes hornazo, a pork and egg pie, down to the banks of the Tormes and eats outdoors.93climate
  10. 🇬🇷 Kos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The first weekend the island wakes up: Greek families come out from Athens and the Dodecanese, the tavernas in Kos town reopen for it, and the spit-roasts are on the Sunday.93climate
  11. 🇬🇷 Naxos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Naxos does Easter better than most of the Cyclades because it has villages rather than just a port.93climate
  12. 🇬🇷 Kefalonia, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Athens comes over for the long weekend and it is the moment the island wakes up: tavernas reopen, the ferries add sailings and the villages roast lamb on the Sunday.93climate
  13. 🇬🇷 Corfu, GreeceCorfu Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The most Venetian Easter in Greece: philharmonic bands in the streets all week, then at eleven on Holy Saturday morning the old town throws clay pots of water off its balconies.92climate
  14. 🇬🇷 Nafplio, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The Good Friday epitaphios processions come down through the marble streets to the waterfront, and the whole of Athens seems to have booked the same weekend.92climate
  15. 🇮🇱 Jerusalem, IsraelHoly Week and Easter · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Western and Orthodox Easter often fall a week or more apart, so the Old City runs two sets of processions.91climate
  16. 🇬🇷 Chania, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The biggest weekend of the Greek year: the villages fill with returning families, lamb goes on the spit on Sunday and shops shut for days around it.91climate
  17. 🇨🇾 Limassol, CyprusOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 5 May (usually)Shops and offices shut from Good Friday and the city goes to the villages in the Troodos foothills.91climate
  18. 🇲🇩 Chișinău, MoldovaOrthodox Easter and Blajini · 5 Apr – 20 May (usually)Midnight services, then a week later Paștele Blajinilor, when families eat at the graves and the roads out to the villages jam solid for a day.91climate
  19. 🇬🇷 Milos, GreeceOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Greeks come home for it and the island effectively opens for the year the same weekend.91climate
  20. 🇵🇸 Bethlehem, PalestineHoly Week and Easter · 20 Mar – 5 May (usually)Palm Sunday to Easter, with the Western and Eastern dates usually a week or so apart and pilgrims walking the road from Jerusalem for both.91climate
  21. 🇷🇴 Bucharest, RomaniaOrthodox Easter · 5 Apr – 10 May (usually)The city empties to the villages for the long weekend.90climate
  22. 🇱🇧 Beirut, LebanonEaster, twice · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Lebanon keeps both calendars, so the country effectively takes two Easters some years and the closures are spread across several weeks.90climate
  23. 🇺🇦 Odessa, UkraineOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)Baskets of paska and painted eggs are blessed outside the cathedrals on Holy Saturday, and the Monday after is a public holiday.90climate
  24. 🇱🇧 Byblos, LebanonHoly Week · 20 Mar – 10 May (usually)Byblos is a Christian town and Holy Week is its serious season, with processions out of the old churches and the port restaurants opening properly for the first time since autumn.90climate
  25. 🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaOrthodox Easter · 1 Apr – 10 May (usually)The city empties to the villages for a long weekend and families spend the Monday at the cemeteries.89climate

…and 12 more in May.

What's on around the world in May →