The year of fiestas

The calendar

Winter

• la Nochevieja 31 December — twelve grapes, one per chime of the Puerta del Sol clock — All over Spain; the clock is in Madrid.
• el Día de Reyes 6 January — the Three Kings bring the children's presents — All over Spain; the parade is on the evening of the 5th.
• las Fallas 15–19 March — satirical monuments built all year and burned in one night — Valencia.

Spring

• la Semana Santa Holy Week — brotherhoods carry wooden saints through the streets — Seville's is the one described here.
• la Feria de Abril Two weeks after Holy Week — a week of casetas, horses and sevillanas — Seville.

Summer

• los Sanfermines 6–14 July — white clothes, red scarves, the bull run at eight each morning — Pamplona, Navarre.
• los castells Human towers raised at annual town festivals, in the square before the town hall — Catalonia.

Any day of the year

• el santo Your saint's day — a phone call and felicidades — Anyone called José is congratulated on 19 March.

• On 31 December, Nochevieja, you eat one grape with each of the twelve chimes of the clock in Madrid's Puerta del Sol.
• In Spain Christmas does not end on 25 December: the big day for children is 6 January, when the Three Kings bring the presents.
• From 15 to 19 March each neighbourhood of Valencia builds a falla, a monument of cardboard and wood several storeys high; all are burned on the night of the 19th, the cremà.
• UNESCO inscribed the Valencia Fallas festivity on its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016. The burning marks the coming of spring and renewal.
• Seville has seventy brotherhoods, each with its day and hour to go out between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
• The Feria de Abril began in 1847 as a cattle market; people stopped buying cows and kept going to dance.
• From 6 to 14 July Pamplona celebrates its saint; every morning at eight six bulls run 875 metres through the centre to the bullring. Many Spaniards criticise the festival for the suffering of the bulls, and the protests grow each year; defenders call it a centuries-old tradition.
• Castells, Catalonia's human towers, are usually performed as part of annual festivities, traditionally in the square in front of the town hall; the tallest have ten levels of people.
• Many people in Spain celebrate two dates a year: the birthday is the party, the santo is the phone call. Felicidades works for both.

En España, la Navidad no termina el 25 de diciembre: el gran día de los niños es el 6 de enero.

In Spain, Christmas does not end on the 25th of December: the big day for children is the 6th of January.

La noche del 19 se queman todas: es la cremà, y la ciudad entera huele a humo.

On the night of the 19th they are all burned: this is the cremà, and the whole city smells of smoke.

Cada año, del 6 al 14 de julio, Pamplona celebra los Sanfermines, la fiesta de su santo.

Every year, from the 6th to the 14th of July, Pamplona celebrates the Sanfermines, the festival of its saint.

En España mucha gente celebra dos fechas al año, y solo una de ellas es su cumpleaños.

In Spain a lot of people celebrate two dates a year, and only one of them is their birthday.

Each fiesta has a home

1. Las doce uvas The Puerta del Sol clock the whole country watches at midnight on 31 December.
2. Las Fallas 15–19 March. Around eight hundred monuments burn in one night.
3. Semana Santa and the Feria de Abril Holy Week processions, then two weeks later the fair on the Real, across the river.
4. Los Sanfermines Pamplona, 6–14 July. The chupinazo rocket opens it at noon on the 6th.
5. Els castells Human towers raised by colles in the squares of Catalan towns.

• The Fallas are a tradition of communities in Valencia; the Feria is Seville's; the Sanfermines are Pamplona's; the castells are Catalonia's. None of them is a Spain-wide festival.
• Pamplona has two hundred thousand inhabitants; during the Sanfermines a million people come.
• The Feria's casetas are mostly private — they belong to families, companies or clubs — and you need an invitation.

Sevilla tiene setenta hermandades, y cada una tiene un día y una hora para salir a la calle entre el Domingo de Ramos y el Domingo de Resurrección.

Sevilla has seventy brotherhoods, and each one has a day and an hour to go out into the streets between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

Dos semanas después de Semana Santa, Sevilla se viste de fiesta.

Two weeks after Holy Week, Sevilla dresses up for a party.

Todo el mundo va vestido de blanco, con un pañuelo rojo al cuello y una faja roja.

Everybody dresses in white, with a red scarf around the neck and a red sash.

Reyes: how 6 January works

1. la carta Write the letter During December children write to the Kings asking for toys — and saying whether they have behaved.
2. la cabalgata Watch the parade, 5 January The Kings arrive in every city with floats, camels and thousands of sweets, caught with bags and upside-down umbrellas.
3. los zapatos Leave the shoes out By the window or the tree, with water and turrón for the Kings and the camels.
4. el carbón Wake to presents — and coal Children who misbehaved get coal, but it is made of sugar, and in reality everybody gets it.
5. el roscón Breakfast on roscón de Reyes A ring of sweet bread with candied fruit. Find the figure and you are king for the day; find the bean and you pay for the roscón.

• The Kings are Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar; on the afternoon of 5 January they arrive in every city in a cabalgata.
• Inside the roscón are a little figure and a bean: whoever finds the figure is king for the day; whoever finds the bean pays.
• In recent decades Father Christmas has arrived in Spain too, and many families split the presents between the two dates.

Se llaman Melchor, Gaspar y Baltasar, y son ellos los que traen los regalos.

They are called Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, and it is they who bring the presents.

Dentro hay dos sorpresas: una figurita y un haba. Quien encuentra la figura es el rey del día; quien encuentra el haba paga el roscón.

Inside there are two surprises: a little figure and a bean. Whoever finds the figure is king for the day; whoever finds the bean pays for the roscón.