While most of Europe celebrates Remembrance Day, here it’s St. Martin’s Day – San Martin. (Spain was officially neutral in both world wars, so they don’t have a Remembrance Day). San Martin is traditionally when the chestnuts are ready to pick, and the new wine from the summer’s grape harvest is ready to drink. (Although with global warming, the chestnuts have been in the shops for weeks.) So most families…
The devil arriving at the fiesta, San Miguel, Breña Alta La Palma has several fiestas where the devil appears. On Saturday night I went to one in San Miguel, a little village in Breña Alta. It started off like most fiestas – a band playing in the village square, with a couple of kiosks selling drinks and snacks, and a stall selling cheap kid’s toys. Then, a little after 1…
There are two nice fiestas coming up at the beginning of September. In El Paso, the statue of the Virgin of the Pine was carried in procession from the hermitage up in the mountain down to the village. On September 6th, there will be another procession to carry it back. The Devil’s dance, Tijarafe, 2007. In Tijarafe in the early hours of September 8th, the devil will join the dance….
The 15th of August is a public holiday on La Palma. (Concepción Inmaculada, the Immaculate Conception) Most of the shops will be closed. If you can get to the village of Concepción, above Santa Cruz de la Palma, they?l be having their annual fiesta: lots of mobile bars blasting out salsa music, lots of stalls selling cheap toys, a religious procession, and probably a live band.
Inside Las Nieves Church Today is the fiesta of the patron saint of La Palma, the Virgin of Las Nieves. It’s also a public holiday for the whole island. Las Nieves is about 2 km inland from Santa Cruz de la Palma. When I went this morning, it was impossible to park within a mile of the fiesta. Sorry, I just turned around and went home. I expect it’s much…
They have lots of religious processions on La Palma, where they take the statue out of the church and around the neighbourhood streets, with music provided by the town band. A lot of the statues are beautiful, but if you see a lot of these processions, they do get a bit samey. This one started much like all the others, only on the salt carpet. But when they got halfway…