Easter Monday Barcelona 2024

Public holiday - Dilluns de Pasqua Florida - Lunes de Pasqua Florida

Event date:
Monday 1st April 2024

Event location:
Public holiday in Barcelona and Catalunya

Information:
Easter Monday Spain 2024- Dilluns de Pasqua Florida  - Lunes de Pascua Florida o de resurrección. This is a Public holiday in Barcelona and Spain. Read more about Barcelona Easter celebrations

Are shops open in Barcelona on Easter Monday? 

No. Shops in Barcelona are closed on Easter Monday except convenience stores. Usually the Maremagnum shopping mall in the harbour area is partially open. La Roca luxury outlet village outside Barcelona is open. Souvenir shops, restaurants and bars are also open. Most tourist attractions and tours are open.

Easter Monday Mona Cakes

Easter Monday is known as 'Día de la mona de Pascua.' In Catalonia making the Easter cake called 'Mona de Pascua' is an important culinary Easter tradition. The cakes are called 'monas' in Spanish and 'mones' in Catalan.

Around 550,000 mona cakes are sold in Barcelona at Easter. Pastry shops and chocolate shops also make chocolate monas, which you can see on display in their windows.

The origins of the word mona are not clear, but it is thought that the word mona comes from Morocco, where mona means 'gift.' It might be from the latin word 'muna' which has the same meaning. 

Mona also means monkey in Catalan, so monkeys are sometimes used as mona cake shapes. Lent is the period of 40 days before Easter when devout Catholics are not supposed to eat meat and eggs, so they would save eggs during Lent until Easter to use for cakes. 

The mona tradition dates back to the 15th century and part of the tradtion is that this is a gift that a Godparent bakes for their God-children on Easter Monday. A traditional 'mona' shape is a round cake similar to a big donut.

The mona recipe was originally marzipan and hard boiled eggs as the main ingredients. The number of eggs is supposed to be the age of the Godchild, but no less than 2 and no more than 12.

Nowadays a mona can have many shapes and themes and can also be made of chocolate.

Chocolatiers and bakers all over Catalonia compete to make the biggest and most spectacular Mona de Pascua creations and the best ones are even shown on TV. 

Famous bakeries

Visit one of Barcelona's most famous bakeries, called Escribà pasteleria, to see an Easter Mona creation in the window. Escriba has two locations. One on Las Ramblas and their original shop with a big Easter mona on display on street Gran Via 546. Another top pastry shop is Pasteleria Hofmann in the Born area of the old city, where you can also find Monas de Pascua at the Museu de la Xocolata - the Barcelona Chocolate museum.
Or why not make one yourself: here is a typical Easter mona cake recipe.

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