San Jose main street at Corpus Christi Corpus Christi in San Jose isn’t nearly as spectacular as it is in Mazo, but it’s still very nice. Since the whole thing takes out on a flat, tarmaced street, the tradition is to make carpets of coloured salt, with the altars being much more modest. This year, many of the carpets are made from seeds and petals, like in Mazo.This carpet is…
Yesterday was the biggest livestock fair on the island. San Antonio del Monte used to be a village, but the villagers moved away. About the only thing that’s left is the church of St. Anthony and the feast day, with it’s massive fair. Apart from the animals, there’s a craft fair, and of course lots of stalls selling cheap toys, food and drink. It’s a pretty enough little church,…
Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) is a big festival in Mazo. They decorate the streets with spectacular archways and carpets covered with flowers, seeds and leaves. People collect the materials and work on intensively the pieces a couple of weeks in advance, but the archways are erected a Wednesday night. But they had a problem with the crane, and they were still putting up the last of them when…
Saint Isidore the Laborer This weekend they’re holding the second biggest livestock fair on the island, at San Isidro, in Breña Alta. (The biggest is San Antonio del Monte, in June). It starts off with a procession which brings the statue of the saint from the church to the fairground. Sorry, I missed that bit (I was having a lie in) Cattle at the fair of St. Isidore, Breña Alta…
The north-west of the island is home to great many almond trees, and at this time of the year, they’re all blossoming. The trees in El Paso and Garafía are beautiful, but the best display of all is at Puntagorda. In fact Puntagorda hosts an annual almond blossom fiesta. The date varies — the Town Hall sets it a couple of weeks in advance, to (hopefully) coincide with the best…