Holidays & Festivals

Holidays in Spain

January 1 New Year's Day
January 1 Epiphany
February 28 Day of Andalucia
Early April Good Friday/Easter/Easter Monday
May 1 May Day/Labor Day
May 23 Corpus Christi
July 25 Day of Galicia
August 15 Feast of the Assumption
September 11 National Day in Catalonia
October 12 Spanish National Day
November 1 All Saint's Day
December 6 Day of the Constitution
December 8 Immaculate Conception
December 25 Christmas Day

FESTIVALS

Spain:

Carnival a carnival with parades and costume parties culminating on Ash Wednesday with the traditional burial of the Sardine, marks the beginning of Lent.

Semana Santa The city's most famous celebration, Semana Santa was begun in the 14th century. In the 17th century it assumed the traits which it maintains today, coinciding with the golden age of Sevillian religious images. This is the period of the creation of Jesús del Gran Poder, La Macarena, and the Christ of Cachorro, pivotal images of the processions. Semana Santa in Seville spans the 7 days of Easter, with the staging of daily processions, as well as the 40 days of Lent, necessary for the preparations. The celebration lasts from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and includes the participation of 57 brotherhoods.

Madrid:

Fiestas de San Isidro May 15th marks the start of the celebrations surrounding the month-long Fiestas de San Isidro honoring the patron saint of Madrid and are the most lively popular festivities in Madrid. Tradition demands that one attends the Romería (pilgrimage) to the saint's meadow to drink from the miraculous water at the fountain of the hermitage. Traditional Castizo dress is worn, and the typical barquillos (rolled wafers), buñuelos (fritters) and rosquillas (doughnuts) are for sale. This time of year also ushers in the famous Feria Taurina or bullfighting fair which also carries the name of the patron saint of Madrid and lasts from the middle of May to the middle of June at the Plaza Monumental Las Ventas bullring. Concerts, open-air dances and outdoor celebrations are also held during this period.

San Antonio The 13th of June, the day of San Antonio, young girls have a date at the hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida. According to dressmakers' tradition, a single girl must place 13 pins in the baptismal font, and if one of the pins sticks to her finger, she will marry during the year.

August is the month of celebration in some of the typical districts of Madrid. From the 6th to the 15th, the Fiestas de San Lorenzo, San Cayetano and the Virgen de la Paloma are commemorated with processions, open-air dancing, and sidewalk concerts in the park of the Vistillas and vicinity.

Seville:

Velá The biggest celebration of the Guadalquivir, the Seville river, is the Velá (night) of Santa Ana, held in the sailor's neighborhood of Triana. It takes place on the 24th, 25th and 26th of July, coinciding with the celebrations of Saint James and Santa Ana (the area's patron saint).

Costa del Sol

Summer Fair Every town and village in Andalucia has its own summer fair. These can take place at any time after Easter until October. Even a 'day' fair can last a week with all local shops, businesses and streets closed. Tables and chairs are set up in the streets and music plays from every corner. People of all ages join the singing, dancing and revelry. Traditional fairgrounds with rides for children are set up on the outskirts of the town and, along with live music shows, will be open until the late hours of the morning.

La Fiesta de los Reyes The Fiesta de los Reyes, the fiesta of kings, is held on the 6th January and is the official time for Spanish children to receive their Christmas presents. Three men dress as kings to parade the streets on mule or horse back scattering sweets to excited children. The effect of this date of celebration means that the Christmas period in Spain is a long one lasting from Christmas Eve, through Cristmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day to the 6th January.

Granada:

Holy Week Has been officially declared a "Holiday of interest to the tourist" and is one of Granada's grandest festivities, attracting more and more visitors each year with increasing displays of popular fervor. On Wednesday of Holy Week, there is a procession called "Christ of the Gypsies" or "Christ of Sacromonte".Other processions include the procession of Silence, which begins at midnight on the Thursday at Holy week, departing from the Church of San Pedro on the Carrera del Darro, and the procession of Las Anguastias, which takes place on the Saturday.

Corpus Cristi Fair Between May and June the Corpus Cristi Fair, the biggest festival in the city, is celebrated. Typical Andalusian dress is worn, horse-drawn carriages are used, and there is dancing at the stalls of the fair. Bullfights are also held.

Valencia:

Fallas Valencia has a fantastic festival each March called Fallas in which local areas build big paper maché models depicting several subjects. They are mostly of a satirical nature and can be as tall as a few stories. Fallas are constructed of smaller figures called ninots, valencian for dolls. The fallas take a whole year of planning and construction to complete. Each neighborhood has a falla, but 14 fall into the Sección Especial category and these are the most important, expensive, and impressive. Each falla has an adult falla(mayor) and a kid's falla (infantil). It is best to arrive by the 16th of March, as all of the fallas are required to be finished or the face disqualification.

Another feature of Fallas is the fireworks. Each day there is three fireworks events, la despertà, la mascletà and el castillo.
The days of the 17th and 18th or March is La Ofrenda. The falleras from each falla take flowers to the Plaza of the Virgin. These flowers are used to construct the virgin. The processions are grand and very beautiful and worth catching. They follow two main paths, one down calle San Vicente and the other down Calle de Colon.
At the end of a week displaying the 'fallas' they are burnt. This is called la cremà. The fallas infantiles are burned at 10pm and the fallas mayores are burned anywhere from 12am to 1am. The one at the town halls is burned last at 1am. The most impressive to see are the fallas in Sección Especial as these are the largest and most dramatic when they burn. These tend to be very crowded and one should arrive early.

La Tomatina On the last Wednesday of August nearby Buñol hosts La Tomatina, a festival that involves thousands of participants throwing ripe tomatoes at each other.

Epifanía Jan 5-6 Without a doubt the most anticipated day of the year for Spanish children, the arrival of the three gift-bearing Biblical kings- Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar- is celebrated with a festive early evening parade. The religious monarchs parade through the decorated city- along with their enormous entourage of 33 lavishly adorned floats and 1,000 costumed people!- throwing 10,000 kilograms of candies to the rather excited children lining the sidewalks. Following the parade, which lasts hours and visits practically the entire city, the kings greet the public from the balcony of the Ayuntamiento.

Following the excitement of the Cabalgata, families leave out drinks and sweets to entice the three kings before turning in early for bed.



Barcelona:

Festes de la Merce This is Barcelona's main annual festival which is celebrated on 24th September. There are plenty events taking place from 22nd including competitions to see which group of 'castellers' can form the highest human tower and processions involving wooden giants. There are lots of live music events, unbelievable firework displays and heavy consumption of Cava, the national drink of Catalonia.

Dia de Sant Jordi The 23rd April is a wonderful day to be in Barcelona when the Ramblas becomes a huge flower market and book stall. Men give women a rose reminiscent of St Valentines Day and women give men a book in tribute to Cervantes who died on this day in 1616 (Shakespeare died on the same day).

Festival de Sant Joan In the weeks leading up to the 23rd of June there is a rise in the number of fireworks being let off around the city then on the 23rd it's pyromaniac heaven as everyone heads down to the beach to celebrate the start of summer with an explosion of fireworks and bonfires burning on the beaches and all night revelry.

Festa Major de Gracia This is a week long festival in the streets of the Gracia neighborhood where a full scale party takes place with lots of live music, fireworks and heavy drinking. It takes place around 15th August.