Recreation and Festivals - "spain
fiestas"
As a result of its favorable climate, there are many
popular celebrations on the Costa de la Luz
throughout the year. However, most take place during
the spring and summer. You will find examples of the
most diverse folk festivals rooted arising from the
province's thousands of years of history. Flamenco
dancing and music really comes into its own during
the "romerias" and popular festivities. Many of
these traditional festivals have been retained
through the years and although each village has its
own typical festivals, the followings are some of
the most famous.
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Cadiz Carnival - spain fiestas
The carnival is held in
February/March and is centred on
a contest of parodies. There are
also parades and fancy dress, a
pageant of inventiveness, humor
and subtle irony.
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Three Kings Festival
Malaga - spain fiestas
On Epiphany Eve, the
night before the Three Wise Men
arrive to give presents to good
children, there is an ornate
procession in most towns and
villages throughout Spain to
celebrate their arrival. This is
a family-oriented event ideal
for small children. The children
of Mallorca in the Balearics and
Tenerife in the Canaries get the
added thrill of seeing the Kings
arrive by sea. These processions
are a relatively recent
phenomenon - Seville's, the
oldest, dates back only as far
as 1916 - but they are very
popular.
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Fiesta de San Antonio
Abad Fiesta Tenerife - spain
fiestas
The Fiesta of San
Antonio Abad (Saint Anthony
Abbot), held in the small
southern town of Arona in
Tenerife and parts of Mallorca,
offers an intriguing programme
of entertainment. Traditional
games, colourful processions,
mouth-watering dishes, music and
dancing in abundance fill the
week around the actual Saint's
day, proving once more that
religion is the best excuse to
party. They begin on Friday
afternoon with games like
sack-racing, colour-parachutes
and many more.
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La Tamborrada San
Sebastian Festival San Sebastian
- spain fiestas
The fiesta starts on
the 20th of January at 00.00
hours when the flag is raised by
the "Gaztelubide" Tamborrada in
the former Town Hall, now town
library, located in the "Constitución"
Square. For 24 hours the town is
a fiesta of drums and barrels,
the hymns by Sarriegui can be
heard in all quarters. At 24.00
hours the "Unión Artesana"
Tamborrada is in charge of
hauling down the flag and
finishing the fiesta. The fiesta
has been growing and the
increasing number of
participants each year.
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Carnivals in Tenerife
Carnival Tenerife - spain
fiestas
anta Cruz de Tenerife
hosts the largest, most
impressive and most spectacular
carnival bonanza in the whole of
Tenerife. Preparations begin
weeks or even months in advance,
but the festival proper begins a
week before Ash Wednesday with
the election of the carnival
queen and continues with a horse
parade. The carnival's current
reputation rides on its
extraordinary pre-Lenten
activities - visitors from all
around the globe flock to the
town to partake in the
cross-dressing event of the
year.
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Las Fallas Fire Festival
Valencia - spain fiestas
Valencia's biggest festival, Las
Fallas, takes place every March
with a riotious week of city
fires, explosions and parades in
honour of Saint Joseph,
attracting around two million
people. The city is adorned with
a myriad of ninots, vast papier
maché figures - politicians,
film stars, bullfighters and
anyone of local, national or
international notoriety can find
themselves colourfully
caricatured as a 15 or 20 foot
model. One of the highlights of
the festival week is the burning
of these monumental effigies.
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Moros & Cristianos
Alicante Festival Alicante -
spain fiestas
The Moors and Christians
Festival is one of the major
celebrations in Alicante's
calendar, a mixture of religion,
history and street carnival.
Here the festival starts with
dianas waking the people up in
the morning. They head to the
centre of town and await the
entradas, the arrival of the
Moors and the Christians, as
they march through the streets
dressed in period costume. What
follows is a re-enactment of
battles and dialogue between the
Moors and the Christians, acted
out by various companies.
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Romeria del Rocio
Festival Huelva - spain fiestas
Every spring around one
million people converge on the
shrine of El Rocio, at the edge
of the Doñana national park, in
the biggest romeria, or
pilgrimage, in Spain. For an
emotion-packed three days, the
devotees of the Virgen del Rocio
- Our Lady of the Dew - take
part in a celebration which
combines religious fervor and
festive color. Many of the
pilgrims make their way to the
shrine on horseback or in
brightly decorated carriages, in
multi-coloured caravans that
wind across the Andalucian
countryside
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Semana Santa Sevilla
Festival Sevilla - spain fiestas
Semana Santa, or Holy Week, in
Sevilla the capital of Andalucia,
allows the visitor a precious
glimpse into the soul of Spain.
Thousands of people, young and
old, male and female, religious
and secular, pour onto the
winding streets of this ancient
city to remember the events of
The Passion. Seville is renowned
for staging perhaps the most
overwhelming pageant of The
Passion to be found anywhere in
the world. Religious and
community groups from all over
the city spend weeks in
preparation to ensure that the
celebrations do justice to what
is the highlight of the
Christian calendar.
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La Diada de Sant Jordi
Lovers Day Barcelona - spain
fiestas
Barcelona's best day?
Easy. April 23rd, Saint George's
day, La Diada de Sant Jordi,
Barcelona's Valentine's day, a
day when kissometer readings go
off the charts, a day so sweet
and playful, so goofy and
romantic, that 6 million
Catalans go giddy from dawn to
dusk. In Barcelona Sant Jordi's
day erupts joyfully. The spring
air is sweet and filled with
promise. Lovers are everywhere.
There is a 24-hour reading of
Don Quixote and amazing displays
of roses representing 45
different kinds of love.
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Feria de Abril Sevilla
Feria Sevilla - spain fiestas
Every year Sevilla
celebrates La Feria de Abril or
April Fair with round-the-clock
flamenco parties. The fair runs
for around a week and hosts an
enticing programme of typically
Andalucian cultural events.
Flamenco lovers and anyone up
for a good party might find this
event a good time to visit
Seville. Dancing often goes on
until dawn and as well as that
there are the bull fights, a
horse fair and hundreds of
hospitality tents that make this
a highlight for the whole of
Spain.
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Feria del Caballo Horse
Fair Jerez de la Frontera -
spain fiestas
Spain's world-renowned
sherry-producing town hosts the
most prestigious equine heritage
event in the whole of Spain, and
one of the most important in
Europe. Much like the Feria de
Abril , the Feria del Caballo in
Jerez draws many thousands of
visitors to witness the superior
displays of horsemanship,
bullfights and flamenco. Most
equine aficionados come to the
fair to witness the daunting
feats that the Spanish purebred
and Andalusian throroughbreds
are capable of.
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Corpus Christi Festival
Cadiz - spain fiestas
This celebration of the presence
of Christ in the Eucharist
arrived in Spain during the 14th
century and has lived on to the
present day. Every year, on the
Thursday following the eighth
day of Whitsuntide, the Holy
Host is brought out into the
streets around the cathedral
enshrined in magnificent
masterpieces of silverwork.
Together with Semana Santa, this
is one of the country's main
religious celebrations and
provides visitors with a good
insight into the nature of
Spanish Catholicism.
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Fiesta de San Juan
Fiesta Malaga - spain fiestas
Throughout the
different neighbourhood of
Malaga, spectacular goings-on
celebrate the Feast of St John
or Fiesta de San Juan. The
fiesta is a pagan tradition
given Christian sanction for it
dates back to an ancient
celebration of the Midsummer
Solstice. It is a festival of
bonfires and mayhem in the
streets, echoed all over Spain.
The climax of the festival comes
at midnight on the 23rd of July
when juas, large cloth figures
filled with sawdust, paper or
similar materials, are set on
fire.
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San Fermin Running with
the Bulls Pamplona - spain
fiestas
The Pamplona Bull Run,
part of the spectacular Fiesta
de San Fermín, is an event that
people tell their grandchildren
about. Considered by some to be
the definitive rite of manhood,
it sees hundreds of intrepid
locals and visitors attempting
to outpace frenzied bulls along
an 800-metre stretch of the
town's streets as they are
driven to the bullring. The
majority of revellers come to
Pamplona for the encierro, or
bull run - which appears a lot
longer when you are on it!
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Danza de los Zancos
Stilt Dancing La Rioja - spain
fiestas
The rural town of Anguiano
celebrates its patron saint day
(Mary Magdalene) with a fiesta
that for some takes place half a
metre off the ground - the Danza
de los Zancos or Stilt Dance.
Half a dozen or so of the
devotees that escort the saint
around the town do so whirling
and wheeling to the sound of
bagpipes and drums, perched on
stilts. Twice a year, in honour
of Santa María Magdalena, eight
villagers strap on 20 inch
wooden stilts, pull on garish
shirts and leap around the
village streets.
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Las Nieves Fiesta of
Near Death Experiences
Pontevedra - spain fiestas
Every year the small parish town
of As Neves, lying south of the
ferocious Río Miño that marks
the border between Portugal and
Spain, sees thousands converge
on the town's streets for the
Fiesta de Santa Marta de
Ribarteme, or the Fiesta of the
Near Death Experience. One of
the main festival highlights
sees all manner of people being
carried in their coffins by
friends and relatives, in a
procession that follows the
effigy of Santa Marta around the
church.
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Misteri d'Elx Festival
Elche - "spain fiestas"
The nucleus of all this
merrymaking is the medieval
Misteri d'Elx. Represented in
7th-century Basilica of Santa
María, the Misteri is a lyrical
drama from the late Middle Ages
and represents the Assumption of
the Virgin. The actual score is
interpreted by non-professional
singers from Elche. Declared as
a National Monument in 1931,
this is one of Spain's most
curious festivities of
International Tourist interest.
There are two acts: The Vespra
and the Festa, held on August
14th and 15th, respectively.
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Herri Kilorak Rural
Sports Bilbao - spain fiestas
Herculean Basques gather in
Bilbao for the annual strongman
games. Forming part of the
celebrations for Aste Nagusia
the games are a centrepiece of
the daily celebrations of
Bilbao's heritage. First up are
the Aizkolariak, axe-wielding
men who race to chop a 45-inch
thick log in two from between
their legs. The next two days
see stone replace the wood and
the appearance of the "strongest
man in the world" - Basque
harrijasotzaileak champion
Mikeltxo Saralegui's record
stone lift is 329 kilos.
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La Tomatina Valencia
Tomato Festival - spain fiestas
Bunyol in Valencia hosts the
largest tomato war on the
planet. Every year the 9000
people who live in the tiny
village find their population
has quadrupled overnight as a
multitude of frolicsome tomato
enthusiasts turn up for the
opportunity of a lifetime ready
to unleash hell. By 11am the
30,000-strong army are well
breakfasted on pancetta, chorizo
and lots of rosé and have been
prepared for action by copious
soakings. The tomato wars are
about to begin.
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Fiesta de la Merce
Fiesta Barcelona - spain fiestas
Events take place by
day and by night. Particularly
spectacular is the Carrefoc, a
midnight train of dragons,
eagles and devils that make
their presence felt on the
streets to a backdrop of
fireworks. During the day,
crowds pour into the Plaça St
Jaume to witness the
red-and-blue costumed teams of
castellers, who try to build the
tallest human tower possible.
The towers are positively
daunting and can reach some
seven or eight human stories
high. Be sure not to miss out on
this splendid array of Catalan
culture.
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