Which Spanish fiestas belong to which city?
Each big fiesta has one home: the twelve grapes follow the Puerta del Sol clock in Madrid, the Fallas are Valencia's, Semana Santa and the Feria de Abril are Seville's, the Sanfermines are Pamplona's, and the castells are Catalonia's. None of them is a Spain-wide festival.
Each fiesta has a home
- Las doce uvas The Puerta del Sol clock the whole country watches at midnight on 31 December.
- Las Fallas 15–19 March. Around eight hundred monuments burn in one night.
- Semana Santa and the Feria de Abril Holy Week processions, then two weeks later the fair on the Real, across the river.
- Los Sanfermines Pamplona, 6–14 July. The chupinazo rocket opens it at noon on the 6th.
- 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.
More about The year of fiestas
- What are Spain's main fiestas, season by season?
- How does Día de Reyes work in Spain on 6 January?
- The year of fiestas
Sources
- La Feria de Abril — The April Fair
- Los Sanfermines — The Sanfermines
- Valencia Fallas festivity — UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
- Human towers — UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage