Spanish Fiestas

Ever village, town and city has a fiesta, or two or more.

Some say if you have seen one fiesta you have seen them all. It is true that in one respect they are all the same. The trees are trimmed, the roads are decorated with lights, like at Christmas. Bars stock up with alcohol and very often temporary bars and stages are erected. It is a quite normal for a fiesta queen and princess to be elected, and very often there are sports activities as well, and live music.

Local to here we have the normal fiestas held to honour the patron saints. These will often include religious processions where the statue of the saint will be moved from where they are kept into either a church or hermitage, with the reverse journey being made at the end.

However, some places have different fiestas and in fact I wrote of one of them that is held in Cáceres in a recent blog. 

Locally in Vera we have the orange fiesta, which is quite understandable as their are orange groves all around us.

In Lubrin they hold a bread festival in honour of their patron saint Sebastian. As per usual there are fireworks and doughnuts and bread rings are made especially for the fiesta. An amazing amount of bread is produced for the occasion and as the saint leaves the church the bread is handed out amongst every one present, and bread money and flowers are thrown out of windows as the saint passes.

There is a very famous fiesta in Valencia where huge fallas, or papier mache figures, which can reach twenty metres in height, and which very often satirically represent political or social figures. A lot of work goes into these figures and what happens to them? Yes! Like the dragon in Cáceres, they go up in flames.

Another famous fiesta is La Tomatina, held in Buñol in the province of Valencia. Basically, everyone throws tomatoes at everyone else, resulting in a massive tomato fight.

So, although your local fiesta may the same old same old, it is still a great opportunity to join in the fun with friends. Similarly, if you are looking for something a bit more exciting, just do some research, there are some fantastic fiestas to see in Spain.