Christian Easter and Jewish Passover almost always fall close together. It is no coincidence: Holy Week commemorates events that, according to the Gospels, took place during Passover in Jerusalem.
For Majorca's crypto-Jews, that overlap was a refuge. While the whole city fasted, attended services and followed the processions, one more fast drew no attention.
One file records such a conversation. On Holy Wednesday or Thursday 1687, in the presence of Rafael Joseph Cortés, there was talk about Violante Forteza and that «that would be the day of the fast of the Jews' Passover».
The bells, the hooded penitents and the candles belonged to Palma's Holy Week. The fast, for some, belonged to Passover. Two liturgies laid on top of each other on the same day, and only a few knew which one they were really keeping.
