Hacerle la pascua
To do someone the Easter.
to make life difficult for someone; **to make life difficult for someone**; **to sabotage someone**; **to play a dirty trick on someone**; **to mess things up for someone**; **to make someone's life miserable**
Hacerle la pascua (a alguien) means to make life difficult for someone, to play a nasty trick on someone, to sabotage someone, to spoil things for someone, or to make someone's life miserable.
Me hizo la pascua delante de todo el mundo.
He made my life miserable in front of everyone.
Siempre está haciéndole la pascua a sus compañeros.
She's always making life difficult for her colleagues.
No quiero hacerte la pascua.
I don't want to spoil things for you.
Le hicieron la pascua justo antes del examen.
They sabotaged him just before the exam.
It usually implies intentional annoyance or harm.
- deliberately causes problems for another person
- ruins someone else's plans
- behaves out of spite
- makes life unnecessarily difficult
- plays an unpleasant trick
It belongs to the living, colloquial layer of the language, where a striking phrase is enough to make it stick.
One widely accepted explanation links the expression to old rural customs associated with Pascua, when livestock were selected or slaughtered, bringing unpleasant consequences despite the festive name.
Over time, the expression came to mean causing inconvenience or deliberately harming someone.
Modern speakers no longer associate it with these historical practices.
The expression often implies intentional malice.
Someone who hace la pascua is not simply being annoying by accident; they are deliberately creating problems for another person.
The idiom is common in family life, schools and workplaces.
Spanish has many expressions describing deliberate annoyance:
- Hacerle la pascua → to make life difficult for someone.
- Fastidiar a alguien → to annoy someone.
- Poner zancadillas → to put obstacles in someone's way.
- Jugar una mala pasada → to play a nasty trick on someone.
Among them, hacerle la pascua is one of the most common because it can describe anything from minor everyday irritation to serious acts of sabotage, always with the idea that the harm is intentional.
Do not translate the expression literally.
English speakers would never say:
He did me the Easter.
Instead, use expressions such as:
- He made life difficult for me.
- She sabotaged me.
- He played a dirty trick on me.
- She deliberately spoiled everything.
Choose the translation according to the seriousness of the situation.
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