Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that falls on or after 21 March.
Everything else about a spring trip to Seville follows from that one sentence, including which week the Semana Santa de Sevilla fills the old town and which museums shut their doors.
Why does Seville Holy Week move every year?
Because Easter Sunday is computed from the moon, not fixed on the calendar. It is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March, the rule agreed at the Council of Nicaea. That places it between 22 March and 25 April, a 35-day window that drags the Feria along behind it.
Municipal sites close, regional ones do not
Whether a site shuts that week depends on who runs it, and each administration publishes its own calendar. The split is clean enough to plan around.
| Site | Run by | Holy Week |
|---|---|---|
| Centro Cerámica Triana | ICAS, municipal | 10am to 3pm all week, closed Maundy Thursday and Good Friday |
| Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla | Junta de Andalucía | No Holy Week closures on its list |
| Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo | Junta de Andalucía | Closed Mondays year round, as in any other week |
| Archivo General de Indias | State | Closed Maundy Thursday and Good Friday |
The Centro Cerámica Triana cuts its hours to 10am–3pm through Holy Week and the Feria alike, and closes completely on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, on the calendar the ICAS publishes. The Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla publishes six closure days a year and none of them falls in Holy Week.
The Archivo General de Indias, which is state-run and charges nothing, also closes on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. With three cases the rule sharpens: it is not municipal against regional, it is that the Junta’s museums are the exception, while both the state and the city stop on those two days.
That divergence is worth exploiting. On the days the city is fullest and the other two blocks cut back, the regional museums hold their 9am to 9pm timetable from Tuesday to Saturday, and space opens up there.
The Feria follows, but is not computed
Easter Sunday is calculated from a public and stable rule. The Feria de Abril date is set, and it is set by the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla. That asymmetry is what catches out anyone booking months ahead.
The two therefore cannot be checked the same way. Holy Week for any given year can be worked out by applying the rule; the Feria has to be looked up in that year’s municipal announcement, because its relationship to Easter is a decision rather than a formula.
Booking before the date is known
A visitor fixing flights a year out can pin Holy Week with certainty and cannot pin the Feria. Applying the rule to the year in question settles the first question in a minute, with no source needed.
For the second, the municipal announcement is the only answer, and it arrives far later than most flight bookings. Anyone who needs to avoid both peaks rather than attend them has the same asymmetry working in reverse: Holy Week can be dodged in advance, the Feria only approximately.
- Apply the rule to the year in question and fix Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
- Add a fortnight of uncertainty after Easter for the Feria, which is not computable.
- Book museums around the split: municipal sites cut to 10am–3pm, regional ones do not.
- Ignore ticket prices in the calculation. The €15.50 Alcázar and the €13.00 Cathedral do not move with the date.
A window of 35 days
Both extremes follow directly from the rule. The earliest possible Easter is 22 March, when the full moon falls on Saturday the 21st. The latest is 25 April, which puts Palm Sunday somewhere between 15 March and 18 April.
Thirty-five days separate those two dates, and that is the span across which the whole of Holy Week slides. Palm Sunday always sits seven days before Easter Sunday, so the block moves without changing shape or length.
The rule has three conditions
Three principles agreed at Nicaea still govern the calculation. Easter must fall on a Sunday. It must not coincide with Passover, which is set without regard to the weekday. And there cannot be two celebrations in the same year.
From those comes the formula still applied: the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March, then the Sunday that follows. If that full moon already falls on a Sunday, Easter moves to the next one rather than staying put.
Two details explain why the result does not match an astronomical calendar. The ecclesiastical full moon is the fourteenth day of the lunar month according to church tables, which does not always coincide with the real full moon. And 21 March is a fixed ecclesiastical equinox, while the astronomical one drifts between 19 and 21 March.
What stays fixed whatever the date
The structure does not move. The Carrera Oficial and its four sections work identically whether the week lands in March or April, and the boxes and chairs are annual subscriptions in either case.
The same holds for the Feria: the mechanism governing access to the casetas has nothing to do with the calendar, and it is set out in the guide to how the Feria casetas work. What the date changes is the weather and the pressure on accommodation, not the rules.
Ticket prices are equally indifferent to it. The Real Alcázar costs €15.50 and the Cathedral €13.00 online in any week of the year, on the tariff the Cabildo publishes for the second and the Patronato for the first, and the only two admissions in the city that require a reservation are the free ones, as set out in the guide to Seville monument tickets.
Frequently asked questions about Holy Week and Feria dates
Why does Seville Holy Week change dates every year?
Because Easter Sunday is computed from the moon rather than set on the civil calendar. It is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon falling on or after 21 March, under the rule agreed at the Council of Nicaea.
What are the earliest and latest dates for Holy Week?
Easter Sunday can fall between 22 March and 25 April, a window of 35 days. Palm Sunday, which opens the week, always falls seven days earlier, so the whole of Holy Week shifts within that same span without changing shape.
Do museums close in Seville during Holy Week?
It depends on the administration. Centro Cerámica Triana, municipal, cuts to 10am–3pm and closes on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and the state-run Archivo General de Indias closes those same two days. The Museo de Bellas Artes, run by the Junta, lists no Holy Week closures at all.
Can you work out the Feria de Abril dates in advance?
Not from a formula. Easter Sunday follows a public rule that anyone can apply to any year, while the Feria date is set by the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla. One can be deduced years ahead; the other has to be looked up for each year.
Holy Week can be worked out with a rule seventeen centuries old. The Feria has to be asked about.