 With an average of nine radically different fiestas on any given day, Spain has every right to claim its place as Europe’s party nation, if not the world’s. Here are some of the greatest - along with a few of the most bizarre ‘wild-card’ gems - of the Spanish fiesta calendar.
January
Los Reyes Magos (5th Jan.): The three camel-riding oriental kings who deliver the nation’s presents – no Father Christmas or reindeer in these latitudes – head noisy evening processions through every Spanish town. Anxious that the festive season (already the longest in Europe) should not die too soon, the procession invariably leads to parties known as cotillón de reyes…which in turn lead to a breakfast of thick Spanish drinking chocolate and traditional roscón cakes (and still more cava).
Fiesta de San Antón (Madrid, 17th Jan): Hundreds of animal-lovers bring their pets to pay homage to the patron saint of animals. Over the years the local priest has even blessed iguanas, pythons, elephants, giraffes and a black panther!
February
Carnaval: Carnaval is said to symbolise the battle between unbounded happiness and established order. Although celebrated in many parts of Spain, Cádiz is recognised as the main venue for this winter highlight of the Spanish fiesta calendar. The main event is a procession of 160 official groups and more than 100 others (known as ilegales) who are appreciated for their hilarious satires of famous personalities.
February is also the month for the ‘Running of The Cocks,’ in which cockerels ‘run amok’ through many Galician villages and for Cogolludo’s (Guadalajara) Ash Wednesday Chocolate Festival, when a gang of local hooligans accost unsuspecting kids and paint their faces with chocolate!
March
Las Fallas (Valencia, 12th–19th March): The culmination of a week of partying is the ‘Night of Fire’ when Valencia becomes a city of flame and smoke as 400 gigantic papier-mâché sculptures are burnt. The symbolism of all this is to burn off the last solemn residue of the winter.
In Baena (Cordoba, most Fridays) hundreds of drummers parade around bonfires all over the town and literally ‘play until their fingers bleed.’
April
 Semana Santa: God-fearing Spaniards prove their devotion – and serve their penitence – during Holy Week. The most famous procession takes place in Seville but those of Castile are more severe and offer a dauntingly medieval atmosphere. Sevillanos who have already proved their devotion feel free to indulge in a week-long celebration of pure Andalusian passion during the Feria de Abril (2 weeks after Easter).
Like a scene from Dante’s Inferno, Barcelona is invaded (on 29th April) by an army of 600 devils armed with rockets and firecrackers.
May
El Rocío (Huelva, late May/early June): The tiny village of Almonte is the scene of one of Spain’s most picturesque pilgrimages. As many as a million devotees may trek for a week on horseback or in oxen carts to assemble outside the church and, still from horseback, pay their respects to ‘Our Lady of the Dew’…and to party for the next 40 hours.
In Laza (Orense, 2nd May) a young ‘Eve’ is kidnapped by a gang of brigands. The following morning, the fearless ‘Adam’ sets out to liberate her with the townspeople dancing after him.
June
Battle of the Wine (Haro, La Rioja, 29th June): Wineskins are the usual weapons (as in many a Spanish fiesta) but even tankers and fire engines are occasionally called in as ‘heavy artillery’ or ammunition arsenals. Both ‘armies,’ and most of the town, end up indelibly dyed with tinto.
During Corpus Christi in Castrillo de Murcia, a figure known as El Colacho (representing the devil) leaps over a bed full of the town’s newborn babies…apparently to protect them from hernias!
July
 Las Fiestas de San Fermin (6th-14th July): This is the month for the incomparable fiesta of Pamplona, famous for the bullrun that punctuates these 204 hours of non-stop, good-humoured mayhem. Few visitors realise that the fiesta is also the highlight of Navarra’s cultural, musical and religious calendar.
In Santa Marta de Ribarteme (Pontevedra, 29th July) the local people dress up in their finery and go for a ‘joy-ride’ around town in their own coffins.
August
There are literally hundreds of fiestas going on at this, the height of the fiesta season.: from the Viking Fiesta (Catoira, Galicia, around 15th Aug.) in which a longboat enters the bay to be mobbed by rebellious villagers, to the waterfront bullrun known as Toros al Agua (Benicarlo, 24th) and the Gypsy Horse-Races on the beach at Sanlúcar (Cádiz, late Aug).
La Tomatina (Bunyol, Valencia, last Wednesday in August) is an unbelievable blitzkrieg of 140tons of ripe tomatoes!
September
Fiesta del Charco (Gran Canaria, 8th Sept.): In the little Canary Island village of San Nicolás de Tolentino the villagers practise the ancient sport of pole-vaulting down mountainsides. Their poles are then offered to the Sea Gods as a petition for the long-awaited rains and the festivals ends in the charco (the ‘pond’) when the entire population plunges fully dressed into the sea.
San Antolin (Caparroso, Navarra, 2nd Sept.): The usual frenetic week of drinking and dancing…except that somewhere in the streets of this little village there is an enraged fighting cow, charging anything that moves. She has been known to appear on second-floor balconies!
October
Moors & Christians (El Campello, Alicante, 15th Oct.): Hundreds of costumed warriors parade through the town as a prelude to the great afternoon battle. The Christian victory comes as no surprise and both sides repair to the bars. (There’s also a children’s ‘bullrun’ with calves).
Festo do Marisco (O Grove, Galicia, early Oct.): Once just a local fishermen’s annual binge, this festival has evolved into nine days of nothing less than ‘the worship of seafood.’
November
 Fiesta of Smoke (Arnedillo, La Rioja, last Sunday in Nov.): St Andres once delivered the people of Arnedillo from a terrible epidemic and purified the town with smoke. Every year scores of fires (made from the wood of a local herb) are lit in the narrow streets and the townspeople jump through the smoke to purify themselves…the atmosphere has been described as ‘strangely stimulating.’
December
Christmas (Everywhere): Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) is the first family celebration of a festive season that goes on through Noche Vieja - when the New Year is greeted by the cough of a million Spaniards trying to swallow a grape for every chime of the clock - and right up to the arrival of the Three Kings…see January!
NOTE: Dates may change from year to year, according to the Church calendar or on how the weekends fall. Confirm with the Spanish Tourist Office (www.tourspain.co.uk) |
"He who dies with the most experiences wins"
return