Official Portal of Tourism. Junta de Castilla y Leon

The Sermon on Descent and the procession of the Holy Burial are the protagonists of the ritual of Good Friday in Holy Week in Bercianos de Aliste.

The visitor of Bercianos de Aliste must bear in mind that Easter in this town, with just 200 inhabitants, is not like other "Holy Weeks".

At around 4 pm, the confreres dressed in their white linen robes, which will serve as a shroud for them on the day of their burial, leave the temple towards the plaza, singing the heartbreaking Forgiveness Oh My God. Once gathered around the carvings of Christ and the Virgin, the parish priest begins the Sermon on the Descent, a unique speech each year that always ends with the same ritual: the unlocking of the Christ, an articulated carving from the 19th century collected by the confreres of Bercianos at the foot of the cross. They present it to their mother, the Sorrowful Virgin, and then they introduce her into the glass urn where she will remain until the following Good Friday. And so, with the Crucified Christ turned to Lying, the procession of the Holy Burial begins.

The brotherhood that continues to exist is that of the Holy Christ of the Cross (or of the Most Holy Burial), of great antiquity. This Easter does not have impressive images, nor very numerous, of great artistic value made by famous sculptors, nor spectacular processions, ... but what does exist is great austerity, an experience, on these special days for Christians, of faith , and a strong will to revive and preserve ancient traditions.