On the Wednesday of Holy Week, Finestrat celebrates the ancient Salpassa rite of blessing the salt in people's houses

Finestrat preserves many local religious and folk culture traditions during Holy Week. One of the nicest and most deeply-rooted customs to have survived up to the present day is undoubtedly the one known as Salpassa. It's held on the Wednesday of Holy Week at 5:00 pm and is really worth seeing, as you get a glimpse of a time in Spain when religion played a prominent role in society. It's a very ancient rite. The priest visits the houses in the old town to bless the salt, an indispensable product in bygone times for preserving meat and fish.

Nowadays, the ceremony is maintained for the pure pleasure of not losing the customs that marked the day-to-day life of the people who once lived in Finestrat. So, this Wednesday afternoon, residents of the old town will go to their front doors with their salt so the town's parish priest can bless it. In return, they'll give the clergyman an egg, another of the basic elements of an era when every family kept chickens to feed themselves.Holy Week events will continue on Easter Thursday, 6 April at 7:00 pm, with a mass sung by the Choral Association of Finestrat. After that, there's a children's procession. At midnight, El Calvario procession will leave from Sant Bartolomé church. On Good Friday, 7 April, there will be prayers (Los Oficios) at the Casa de Cultura and at 8:00 pm the procession will begin, leaving from Casa de Cultura and travelling along Carrer Nou and Carrer Sant Miquel before going up to the Castell and L’Ermita, then along Carrer Algepsers and ending at Carrer Fonteta.

After the Easter Vigil at midnight on Easter Saturday, La Aurora (the dawn) will be celebrated at 6:00 am on Easter Sunday. A few hours later, at 12:00 noon, el Encuentro procession will begin, setting off from Plaça de l'Ajuntament and moving through the streets of Carrer Major, Carrer Placeta, Carrer Forn Alt, Carrer Sant Antoni and Plaça de la Torreta. Afterwards there will be a mass and the religious ceremonies of Holy Week will come to an end.