The stage of appearances of the royal family in the cathedral of Palma is closed forever, a tradition that was marked by the disagreement between queens Letizia and Sofía on Easter Sunday 2018, this Saturday, for the first time, the Kings and their daughters They have been present at a religious manifestation typical of Holy Week, traveling to the Madrid town of Chinchón where on Saturday of Glory a Living Passion is represented in which two hundred residents of the town participate.
The Kings, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, have arrived in the town after 10 at night, with the main square of Chinchón and the adjacent streets full of people, and they have gone directly to the Plaza de San Roque where the scene of the prayer of Jesus was represented in the Huerto de los Olivos, one of the eight paintings of the living Passion that has been represented for 60 years and is the most popular Holy Week demonstration in the Community of Madrid. Before the arrival of the Kings, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz-Ayuso, did it, received as if she were Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem. The visit of the Kings has been carried out so secretly that not even the president of Díaz-Ayuso knew about it, so a meeting was not planned.
In the Plaza Mayor, famous for its medieval buildings with balconies and wooden porches, is the town hall of the town whose balcony represents the scene of the Last Supper, the first of the Living Passion that later develops in other points of the location.
The representation has been held since 1963 and the celebration of the 60th anniversary has been the excuse for the first private appearance of the Kings and their daughters linked to a religious celebration, although the Zarzuela has emphasized the cultural component and popular roots of representation, in order to preserve the non-denominational character of the Crown. The King, like his daughters, is a practicing Catholic, while the Queen, who, when the official occasion requires it, attends religious acts, does not participate in the liturgy, nor does she cross herself, as could be seen in the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral on last July 25, nor did he do so before the coffin of Elizabeth II, nor before that of Constantine of Greece, at the respective funeral masses in London and Athens.
In recent years, invitations have been issued to the royal family from different locations where processions or other events linked to Holy Week are held to attend, but until this Saturday they have not attended any. The only participation in a religious act was their presence at the Resurrection Mass in the Cathedral of Palma, a tradition that in recent years did not correspond to the presence of the Kings in Majorca and that provoked, as happened on Glory Sunday in 2018, family tensions that ended up coming to light with the scuffle between Queen Letizia and Queen Sofía over some photos that the King's mother wanted to take with her granddaughters.
For years, the Kings, even when they were princes of Asturias, stopped going to Palma during Holy Week and only stayed for one day to accompany the then Kings, Juan Carlos and Sofía, and lately only Queen Sofía.
Since King Juan Carlos went into self-exile to Abu Dhabi, King Felipe has come to Palma for a few days to accompany his mother, while Queen Letizia remains in Madrid.
The particular and condensed Via Crucis of Chinchón, in which two hundred residents take part, has begun to develop at 9 at night and has been staged through different streets and squares of the town. In the Plaza Mayor, famous for its medieval buildings with balconies and wooden porches, is the town hall of the town whose balcony represents the scene of the Last Supper, the first of the Living Passion that later develops in other points of the location. They are followed by living pictures of Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Olives (the first to which the Kings and their daughters have approached); the Arrest; the first, second and third Fall; the meeting with the Virgin; the Crucifixion and, finally, the painting of the Resurrection in which the citizen who represents Jesus Christ ascends through the façade of a church between white smoke and doves.
The Kings and their daughters have been following part of the route, not without difficulty due to the crowd of locals and visitors, although the different scenes are delimited by fences to preserve the actors and the careful scenery. The appearance of the royal family in Chinchón has also had the objective of being seen all together, an image that has not been produced since last October 28 when the Kings, Leonor and Sofía attended, in Oviedo, the delivery of the Princess of Asturias. The Princess of Asturias who arrived in Madrid last Thursday, from the boarding school in Wales, will remain with her family until the 17th. The next time she returns, once the course is over, it will also be the last since, after concluding the International Baccalaureate studies, in September he will begin his military training at the Academy of Zaragoza.
In the absence of the time they will spend together in summer, yesterday is one of the last occasions in which the Kings and their daughters will appear as a family, waiting for the Infanta Sofía to receive Confirmation in a few weeks. A private act of a religious nature, set for May 25, which Sofía will share with her classmates from Los Rosales school and in which her parents and her sister will be present, who will have finished the course in Wales.
When September arrives, the Princess of Asturias will have entered the Military Academy of Zaragoza and the Infanta Sofía will be at the Atlantic College of Wales, where she will attend, as her sister has done, the two years of the international baccalaureate.
The Kings will be left alone in their Zarzuela residence, while their daughters begin to fly alone away from the protection of the Zarzuela palace. In the case of the Infanta Sofía, the criteria that has marked the passage of Princess Eleanor through the boarding school in Wales will be followed and little or nothing will be known about her stay there, nor about her studies. Princess Leonor, however, transfers with the beginning of her military training the strictly family sphere and more when, from October 31, she is of legal age with the celebration of the solemn ceremony in the Cortes included.
Leonor has been out of Spain for almost two years, except for the corresponding vacation periods in which, little by little, she has been gaining prominence with special emphasis on her participation, and first speeches, in the events of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and of the Princess of Girona Foundation.
The Kings have educated their two daughters without making distinctions, but it is evident that from now on, the path of the Infanta Sofía will be to continue drawing her role of support and company of the Princess of Asturias. In accordance with the ethical code promoted by her father, the King, in the future and when she finishes her studies, the Infanta Sofía, like Leonor, will only exercise official functions as a representative of the Crown and, in her case, also will not You can work neither in public nor in private companies.
