Queen Sofia is the only one in the royal family who has an assigned task this Easter. Last night, as is customary every year, he presided, in the cathedral of Palma, at the annual Easter concert to benefit Projecte Home Balears, an NGO that treats drug addicts, and for Holy Thursday it is expected, if the weather permits His presence in Malaga during the transfer, on the shoulders of legionaries, of the Cristo de Mena does not prevent it. The Kings and their daughters, Leonor and Sofía, are expected to make a joint appearance somewhere, yet to be determined, although this possibility cannot be confirmed or ruled out, since La Zarzuela does not report on their private activities.
The King’s mother traveled to Mallorca last weekend to, as is her custom, spend a few days in Marivent, accompanied by her sister, Princess Irene of Greece. Queen Sofia’s loyalty to the island has not changed in the last 50 years, which is why, on February 29, she received the Medal d’Or from the Balearic Islands, but for some years she has been the only tenant of Marivent at Easter.
Gone are the times when the rest of the members of the royal family chose the Balearic residence to enjoy the Holy Week holidays that closed on Easter Sunday with their attendance at mass in the cathedral of Palma. For some years now, the Kings and their daughters, Leonor and Sofía, have opted for other destinations, although on some occasions, after a private vacation, they traveled to Mallorca on Holy Saturday to accompany Queen Sofía at mass the next day and offer a family picture. The King, both last year and the previous year, traveled alone to Mallorca at the beginning of Holy Week to accompany his mother.
This year, in addition, the Kings have fewer days to share with their daughters, since Princess Leonor, like the rest of the cadets at the Zaragoza Academy, has no more days off than those from March 28 to April 4 , while Infanta Sofía also finishes her classes at Atlantic College in Wales on the 28th, although she does not have to join until April 7. The Kings will not have an official agenda again until April 2.
Last year, the Kings and their daughters went, unannounced, to witness, in the Madrid town of Chinchón, a representation of a living Via Crucis in which about two hundred local residents participated.
Every year, from different places that celebrate processions or other events linked to Holy Week, invitations are sent to the royal family. The King, like Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia, is a practicing Catholic, while the Queen, who, when the official occasion requires it, attends religious events, does not participate in the liturgy.
One of the invitations received at the King’s House came from the Congregation of Cristo de Mena, or Christ of the Good Death of Malaga so that, as the then Prince Felipe did, in 1996, there would again be the presence of a member of the royal family in one of the most emblematic religious manifestations of Holy Week. Finally, it will be Queen Sofia who, on Thursday morning, will witness the ceremony of transferring the crucified Jesus, on the shoulders of legionaries, from the church of Santo Domingo in Málaga to the processional throne, to the sounds of the hymn Bridegroom of Death.
