El Borrachito
It’s all been a bit serious lately, so on Sunday night I went to see the Borrachito fiesta in Hoyo de Mazo. I got a bit more than I bargained for, but I certainly got out of my rut.
fiestas
Corpus Christi tomorrow
Tomorrow is Corpus Christi in Mazo. That is, they’ll be making the archways and carpets tonight, and most people will go and see them tomorrow, but they’ll stay up until Sunday night. Also on Sunday they’ll hold a special mass in the church followed by a procession around the archways. The archways will stay up until Sunday. If you miss this, you can see some examples from previous years…
Canary Day
Saturday is Canary Day. It’s a big thing here, and the celebrations have started already. On Friday, most schools will have a party for the second half of the morning. They’ll serve traditional food (probably lots of gofio) and play traditional folk music. Some will have Canarian sports, like the Shepherd’s Leap. And the real celebration is still to come. Most shops will be shut, except in tourist areas.
Peace Day
Spain stayed out of both world wars, so they don’t celebrate Remembrance Day in November. They have Peace Day instead, which schools celebrate on January 30th. In Primary school they wear something white, or mostly white (if the children remembered to tell Mummy), and usually they go into the village centre and sing a song. At high school, the teachers try to work a peace theme into the lesson. For…
The Devil in Tijarafe
La Palma has several fiestas where the devil appears. He’ll visit Tijarafe in the early hours of September 8th for the annual fiesta del diabolo. This is the night of Saturday to Sunday. It starts off like most fiestas. The village centre is off the main road, and on the way in, you pass the usual mobile bars, blasting out music at full volume. In the main square, higher up,…
Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento on Sunday
The patron saint of Barlovento is Our Lady of the Rosary (la Virgen del Rosario). The Christian victory at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 is attributed to her, soevery two years, Barlovento stages a re-enactment of the battle as part of the annual fiesta. This year, it happens on Sunday 11th at 6 pm. Here’s the fun part: the original sea-battle involved 80,000 men, and the re-enactment consists of…