Easter in Croatia 2027: Holy Week, Za Križen and What's Open

Easter Sunday falls on 28 March 2027, early enough that parts of Croatia’s tourist season haven’t started. The Krka boats run from April, the airline summer timetable begins that very Sunday, and the clocks go forward in the small hours of the same morning. What doesn’t move with the season is Holy Week itself, above all the Za križen night on Hvar on 25 March, when six villages walk a 25 km circuit behind a cross. If you’re a UK family on the Easter holidays or a US spring-breaker weighing a coast base against a city, here’s what happens on which day and which parts of a normal itinerary are still closed.

The week in dates

Easter and Easter Monday are the two Easter days on Croatia’s public holiday list, according to the holidays law; Good Friday isn’t on it. The Ministry of Education’s calendar puts Croatian pupils on spring break from 25 March to 2 April 2027, so expect to share roads, ferries and island beds with local families.

Za križen: the night of 25 March

After the evening Mass on Maundy Thursday, each of six villages on Hvar (Jelsa, Pitve, Vrisnik, Svirče, Vrbanj and Vrboska) sends out a procession. According to UNESCO, each group covers 25 kilometres in eight hours, walking through the other villages in a circle before it returns home. Croatia’s Ministry of Culture adds that all six leave at the same time from their parish churches, stop in front of the churches and chapels of the other villages, and are back at their own church before dawn.

At the head of each group walks a cross-bearer, barefoot or in socks, carrying a heavy cross. UNESCO says the role is chosen by registration up to twenty years in advance, which tells you how much it means locally. The central moment is the sung Lamentations of the Virgin Mary, a text from the 15th century. This is a religious ceremony that has run for nearly five centuries, not a staged event: Croatia’s state broadcaster HRT reported thousands of believers in the 2026 procession. Watch from the roadside or near a church, keep your distance, skip the flash and don’t walk into the line.

The exact departure hour is the parish’s to give. Some accounts put it around 10 pm, but neither the UNESCO nor the Ministry of Culture page gives a clock time, so confirm it with the Hvar or Jelsa tourist board and the parish before you plan the evening. Either way, plan to be on the island by Wednesday rather than counting on a Thursday ferry. Our Hvar travel guide and where to stay in Hvar cover the towns and areas.

Holy Week on Korčula

Korčula’s Holy Week, known locally as Vela Setemana, centres on its lay brotherhoods and the processions they hold before Easter. The Korčula Tourist Board’s page says the tradition now holds the status of cultural heritage of Croatia, and that the board has joined the European Network of Holy Week and Easter Celebrations. The page carries no 2027 programme, so the day-by-day schedule is something to get from the board in early 2027. For the town itself see the Korčula travel guide and how to get to Korčula.

What late March does to your itinerary

It’s the calendar, not the event, that shapes the trip, and it cuts in several places at once.

• Parks and boats. Krka National Park’s own pages say boats to Skradinski buk run from April to October and that the Lozovac road is open to cars from November to March and to buses from April to October. On those pages, an Easter-week visit sits in the March regime: no boat from Skradin, so from there it’s the trail on foot or by bike, and no park bus from Lozovac, where you can drive your own car down the park road instead. The Krka from Split guide has the entrances and hours.
• Islands. In 2025 Lokrum’s reserve announced daily visits from 29 March (notice of 28 March 2025); in 2026 it opened on weekends only until 31 March (notice of 23 January 2026). There wasn’t a 2027 notice on 27 October 2026, and Easter weekend 2027 (27 to 29 March) sits right on that edge, so check the reserve’s news page in March before you plan a Lokrum day.
• Flights. Dubrovnik airport’s winter timetable runs to 27 March 2027, and the IATA summer season that airline timetables follow starts on the last Sunday of March, which in 2027 is the 28th. A Saturday flight and a Sunday flight can therefore sit on different timetables; don’t check only the route. The London case is in our London to Dubrovnik guide.
• Ferries. Check your route’s timetable for the Easter days themselves, not just for late March, before you book an island night; the ferries guide lists the lines.
• Shops. In 2025 the big chains were closed on Easter Sunday and Monday, and several closed early on Holy Saturday (dnevnik.hr, 19 April 2025). Shop on Saturday morning and don’t count on a supermarket until Tuesday 30 March.
• The clocks. EU summer time starts at 01:00 UTC on 28 March 2027, so Easter Sunday has 23 hours. If you have an early ferry or flight that morning, set two alarms.

At the table: pinca, eggs and lamb

Good Friday is a fish day; HRT’s report from 3 April 2026 noted busier fish markets than usual. On Easter morning the table changes, and the customs differ by region. The Istria Tourist Board describes pinca, a sweet raisin bread, round with a cross in the middle and traditionally decorated with an olive leaf, as the star of Easter breakfast, served with dyed eggs, ham, onion and salt. Children play a knocking game with the eggs: the winner is whoever’s egg stays whole. Lunch there is meat, lamb under the lid with potatoes and a glass of Malvasia or Teran.

Zagreb’s tourist board describes a different ritual: baskets of boiled decorated eggs, ham, green onion, radish and walnut or poppy-seed pastries are carried to church to be blessed, then eaten at breakfast, followed by turkey with mlinci and štrukli at lunch.

What to pack: late March weather

Daily weather for 21 March to 5 April over 2015 to 2025, taken from Open-Meteo’s historical archive (reanalysis model data, not station readings), gives the picture. In Split the average high is about 16°C and the low about 8°C; Dubrovnik rounds to the same 16°C and 8°C. Zagreb is cooler at about 15°C and 4°C. A day with at least 1 mm of rain happened on roughly 4 of those 16 days in Split, 6 in Dubrovnik and 5 in Zagreb. The spread is wide: the warmest day in the Split data reached 24°C and the coldest day’s high was 7°C. Pack as you would for a damp April, with a rain jacket and layers; don’t plan on beach days, and treat any that come as a bonus.

Choosing a base for Holy Week

Pick your base by what you’ve come for. For Za križen, stay on Hvar from Wednesday and reserve the nights of 24 to 26 March once your flights are fixed. For the brotherhood processions, base in Korčula Town. Split and Dubrovnik are the low-risk city bases, since their old towns are walkable whatever the boat season does. Check the hours of any single attraction you plan around, because several, Krka and Lokrum among them, change at the start of April. Dubrovnik’s own big religious festival is in February, not at Easter; see Feast of St Blaise. For the Easter food customs, Zagreb and Istria are the better bets.

If your dates are flexible, compare this week with a later one in best time to visit Croatia and May versus September; Croatia in winter covers the tail of the cold season that Easter 2027 still belongs to. Travelling with children? Our family holiday guide covers what suits them in the shoulder season.