Are you going to visit Mallorca at Easter?
At this time of the year, our island has plenty of unmissable activities: from the Fira del Ram (which starts at the beginning of March and ends in mid-April), to the traditional processions, including the famous "Davallaments" (the descent of Christ from the cross), which take place on Good Friday in the capital and in towns such as Pollença.
One of the most unusual things to do in Mallorca at Easter is to visit the "casas santas" (holy houses).
This ancient tradition has its origins in the moment when the Hostia Santa (the communion wafer) is placed in an urn that receives this name (in other places, the urns are known as monumentos).
Some of the casas santas you can see in Palma de Mallorca are those of Santa Eulalia, La Seu, the convent of Santa Clara, Santa Magdalena and the church of San Miguel.
In addition to religious traditions, another element that characterises the Easter week in Mallorca is its gastronomy.
This is the time of year when people make all sorts of unique recipes.
These traditional dishes are the centrepiece of family gatherings and of the "Pancaritats", popular picnics that take place in emblematic locations (hermitages, chapels etc.) throughout the Easter week.
Mallorcan cuisine offers all the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, one of the most comprehensive and healthy diets in the world.
It's typified by its use of local products such as fish, seasonal vegetables, olive oil, fruit, and wine.
Some of the typical Mallorcan dishes are Coca de Trempó (a savoury crispy based flatbread with tomato, green pepper and onion), frito mallorquín (made with meat, offal, liver, cooked pork blood, lamb, kid goat, or even turkey), les sopes (soups made with vegetable broth and thin slices of brown bread that serve as a thickener) and Tumbet (made with seasonal vegetables such as aubergines, potatoes, red peppers and tomatoes, and served as an accompaniment to meat or fish).
Throughout Easter, the island's kitchens are filled with totally different flavours and smells.
By tradition, no meat was usually eaten during Lent, and, in the days leading up to Easter, the Mallorcan people's tables were filled with recipes made with fish (especially cod) and vegetables.
One of the typical Mallorcan foods at Easter are savoury pastries, among which the most popular are their Panades.
Panades are pasties that are traditionally stuffed with lamb and peas.
However, nowadays there are different varieties of panades; the ones that are usually found in ovens and bakeries are pork, pork and peas, chicken, chicken and peas, only peas, and fish panades (panades de mussola).
The dough is very basic, simply made with flour, oil and water.
What about another idea for enjoying typical food in Mallorca at Easter?
Try some Llonguets, a type of bread combined with traditional ingredients from the island, such as cheese, sausages, and sobrassada.
Mallorca’s Easter Week includes recipes for many traditional sweet dishes and pastries.
The most famous are the rubiols, small moon-shaped pastries filled with delicious jams, chocolates, angel hair, cream, and even cottage cheese.
The dough is made with a mixture of flour, sugar, lard, oil, eggs and orange juice.
If you want to try the more traditional rubiols, we suggest you try the apricot jam version.
This is no coincidence; many seasonal fruits ripen in spring, including apricots.
Another typical sweet in Mallorca during Easter Week are their crespells, which are small biscuits made with the same dough as robiols.
They're usually shaped like stars, flowers, hearts, or moons, and are served sprinkled with icing sugar.
If you're in Mallorca at Easter, we also recommend you try the homemade apricot ice cream from Ca'n Joan de s'Aigo, in Palma, famous for its refreshing, unique, and special flavour.
One last tradition of Mallorcan cuisine at Easter are the Confits de Caperutxa, large aniseed sweets with almonds inside.
The island's bakeries sell them at this time of year in different sizes and colours, and they're usually a sweet given to children before Easter starts.