Fufo horses in Tazacorte. Today (Monday 29th) is the feast day of St Michael. Since he’s the patron saint of Tazacorte, last night the town celebrated with their famous dancing horses. Famous on La Palma, at least. Would you believe, it’s the first time I’ve seen this in almost 18 years of living here. The crowd following the fufo horses. Well, it’s fun. As you can see, a horse-shaped frame…
As usual, the devil paid a visit to Tijarafe’s annual fiesta. It starts off like most fiestas. The village centre is off the main road, and on the way in, I passed mobile bars, blasting out music at full volume. The only surprise was that the music was drum and bass. When I reached the main square, higher up, I found it decorated with white bunting and packed with people…
Yup, it’s silly. The original battle involved something like 80,000 men, which is almost the population of the whole island. So I was expecting a cut-down version. Heck, Shakespeare did battles by having one man come on stage and say, “Imagine the battle…” So Barlovento had a rather good toy castle with about 12 visible defenders, and the sultan gave a speech about the original battle. Then a ship came…
Lepanto is the Italian name for the Greek port of Naupaktos, where a famous naval battle took place in 1571 in which a coalition of Christians trounced the Ottoman Empire. (Actually, there were also battles in 1499 and 1500, but since the Europeans lost to the Turks, we tend to quietly forget them.) And for some reason they stage a re-enactment in Barlovento, every two years, as part of the…
A romería is a cross between a religious procession and a party. Typically, they hold a special mass and then take the statue out for several kilometres along a traditional route, followed by floats which hand out free food and wine, and lots of people, some in traditional dress, many of them singing and / or dancing. Since it’s a big event, most of them don’t happen every year. Saturday…
Wednesday was the Fiesta del Carmen, which is celebrated in Santa Cruz and Puerto Tazacorte. They have a special mass, and then they take the statue of the Virgin of Carmen out for a procession. So far, so much like most fiestas on the island. Only in this case, they take the statue of the virgin out on a boat parade, to bless the fishermen.These photos are fromPuerto Tazacorte. The…