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 takes over the old town and which buildings shut their doors on Jueves Santo and Viernes Santo. Apply the rule to any year and you know the week before a single poster goes up, which is enough to book flights and a room. The Feria de Abril follows about two weeks after Easter under a criterion the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla has applied since 2019, so it can be pencilled in at the same time and confirmed once the city announces the dates. Ticket prices do not move with the calendar: the Real Alcázar costs 15.50 euros and Seville Cathedral 13 euros online or 14 at the ticket desk in any week of the year.
When is Semana Santa in Seville?
Semana Santa runs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, and Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March, the rule agreed at the Council of Nicaea. That puts Easter between 22 March and 25 April, a 35-day window, with the Feria de Abril about two weeks later.
Which weeks Semana Santa can fall in
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 Semana Santa slides. Palm Sunday always sits seven days before Easter Sunday, so the block moves without changing shape or length.
For a visitor flying in, the month matters more than the exact day. The Real Alcázar switches seasons on 1 April: until 31 March it opens 9.30am to 5pm, and from 1 April 9.30am to 7pm, according to the Patronato. A Semana Santa in late March therefore gives two fewer afternoon hours inside the palace than one in mid-April.
How the Easter rule works
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.
When the Feria de Abril starts
The Feria has no astronomical rule of its own, only a municipal criterion. Since 2019 the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla has placed it about two weeks after Semana Santa, replacing an older approach that tried to keep it in April, and the council sets and announces the calendar of each edition. The fair opens with the alumbrado, when the fairground lights go on at midnight.
The opening day and the length are what have shifted. In 2019 Easter fell on 21 April and the Feria ran Saturday to Saturday, from 4 to 11 May. The latest edition ran Tuesday to Sunday instead, with the alumbrado on the Monday night, fifteen days after Easter Sunday. Apply that pattern across the Easter window and the alumbrado lands anywhere from 6 April to 10 May, so in a late year the April Fair takes place entirely in May.
Because this is a council decision rather than a calendar rule, use the calculation to book and treat the municipal announcement for each edition as the confirmation. The Wednesday of Feria is usually a local holiday in Seville, which puts the Junta’s museums on holiday hours that day, 9am to 3pm at the Museo de Bellas Artes.
What is open on Jueves Santo and Viernes Santo
Jueves Santo and Viernes Santo, the Thursday and Friday before Easter, are public holidays in Andalusia, and every building decides how to handle them according to who runs it.
| Site | Viernes Santo | Jueves Santo | Run by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real Alcázar de Sevilla | Closed | Open | Patronato, city council |
| Archivo General de Indias | Closed | Closed | Ministry of Culture |
| Centro Cerámica Triana | Closed | Closed | ICAS, city council |
| Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla | 9am to 3pm | 9am to 3pm | Junta de Andalucía |
| Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo | 10am to 3.30pm | 10am to 3.30pm | Junta de Andalucía |
The Museo de Bellas Artes treats both days as holidays and opens 9am to 3pm. It shuts on the Monday of Semana Santa as on any Monday, so its long days that week are Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, when it stays open until 9pm.
The Archivo General de Indias, state-run and free, closes on Mondays all year and on both holy days. The Centro Cerámica Triana closes on both too, and on the other days of Semana Santa and during the Feria it cuts to 10am to 3pm.
Seville Cathedral runs its own week. The Cabildo sets a special Semana Santa timetable every year, and it has closed both the Cathedral and the Giralda on Palm Sunday and on the Tuesday, and held Jueves Santo and Viernes Santo to 10.30am to 2.30pm, against a normal last entry of 6pm. Check that year’s timetable before buying the 13 euro online ticket.
How to book flights before the dates are announced
A visitor fixing flights a year out can work out both festivals from one calculation, and only the second depends on a council decision.
- Apply the rule to the year in question and fix Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
- Add about two weeks to Easter Sunday for the Feria. On the latest edition’s pattern the alumbrado came fifteen days after Easter, and the fair filled the Tuesday to Sunday that followed.
- Plan museums around the two holy days: the Archivo and Centro Cerámica Triana close, the Alcázar closes on Viernes Santo, the Junta’s museums open in the morning.
- Leave ticket prices out of the calculation. The 15.50 euro Alcázar and the 13 euro online Cathedral do not move with the date.
Anyone who wants to avoid both peaks rather than attend them uses the same arithmetic in reverse, and the two festivals sit two weeks apart, so a trip squeezed between them is possible.
The structure of both festivals stays fixed whatever the date. The Carrera Oficial and its five spaces work identically in March or April, with boxes and chairs sold as annual subscriptions, and the rules for getting into a caseta are in how the Feria casetas work. 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.
How to get around Seville during Semana Santa
Getting around that week takes a little more planning than usual. The Ayuntamiento draws up a special mobility plan for Semana Santa every year, with traffic cut in the zones the processions cross.
A TUSSAM bus single ticket costs 1.40 euros, paid by tapping a contactless Visa or Mastercard on board, which spares a short-stay visitor from buying a travel card; the fares are set out in how Seville’s transport fares work.
From the airport, TUSSAM’s EA bus costs 6 euros for a single, more than four times an ordinary city ride, and the route into the centre is covered in getting from Seville airport to the city centre.
Frequently asked questions about Semana Santa 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, so Semana Santa ends somewhere between 22 March and 25 April.
When does the Feria de Abril start?
About two weeks after Easter Sunday, on dates the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla sets and announces for each edition. The opening day and the length have both changed: the latest edition ran from Tuesday to Sunday, with the alumbrado lighting up the fairground at midnight on the Monday, fifteen days after Easter. On that pattern the alumbrado would fall between 6 April and 10 May, and the exact dates come with the city’s announcement.
What is closed in Seville on Jueves Santo and Viernes Santo?
The Archivo General de Indias and Centro Cerámica Triana close on both days, and the Real Alcázar closes on Viernes Santo. The Museo de Bellas Artes opens both mornings from 9am to 3pm, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo from 10am to 3.30pm.
Is it worth flying to Seville when Semana Santa falls in March?
It changes the opening hours rather than the programme. Until 31 March the Real Alcázar closes at 5pm, and from 1 April at 7pm, so an early Semana Santa gives two fewer afternoon hours there. Ticket prices are the same in either month: 15.50 euros for the Alcázar, 13 euros online or 14 at the desk for Seville Cathedral.
Semana Santa can be worked out with a rule seventeen centuries old, and the Feria follows about two weeks later.