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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Navidad Christmas - spain fiestas Christmas is a deeply religious holiday in Spain. The country's patron saint is the Virgin Mary and the Christmas season officially begins December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is celebrated each year in front of the great Gothic cathedral in Seville. Christmas Eve is known as Nochebuena or "the Good Night." It is a time for family members to gather together to rejoice around the Nativity scenes that are present in nearly every home. A traditional Christmas treat is turron, a kind of almond candy.
