Spring in Seville has a special atmosphere, garlanded with the sweet scent of orange blossom and jasmine, and a frisson of excited anticipation, as the city's two most important events take place - first Semana Santa and then the Spring Fair, the Feria de Abril.
December 28th, right smack in the middle of the Spanish Christmas season, we have the annual Verdiales competitions taking place right outside Málaga City. The festival will bring together competing “pandas” as they are known. These are groups that practice one of three different forms of Verdiales singing accompanied by their traditional folk dance and unforgettable costumes.
The Patio contests is sponsored by the Córdoba City Hall and began in 1918. But to really understand why a contest of this type was created in Córdoba you must know something about the local architecture.
In 1993, a young woman from the village of Luque in Cordoba had the idea of creating an hermandad (church brotherhood which goes out in a procession in Holy Week) specifically for women. The woman confided her idea to a group of friends, and one year later in 1994, the project of the first female brotherhood was founded - Nuestra Señora del Mayor Dolor. Spanish does not have a female equivalent of the word brotherhood, for women (sisterhood might be hermanadad).
The “Romería Nacional de los Gitanos”, or National Gypsy Pilgrimage” traditionally takes place the third Sunday in June and attracts not only gypsies, but also “gachos” (non-gypsies). In fact, this event which was founded in 1969 by Jose Córdoba Reyes, draws participants from across Andalucia.
Every year the beaches of Sanlucar de Barrameda in the province of Cádiz come alive with the pounding of hooves as the famous horse races take over the coast. Traditionally, the races take place the second and fourth weeks of August from Friday to Sunday. The schedule also depends on the tide times so they might come foward a week.
On 1 November, Tosantos (a contraction of todos los santos, or "all the saints") is celebrated throughout Andalucia, particularly in the villages of Cadiz and Malaga. It is traditional to visit the cemetery and place flowers or light candles on the graves of departed loved ones.
Religious Virgins are hugely popular in Andalucia; they are normally handcrafted from wood and porcelain and spend 99.9 per cent of the year in glass-covered alcoves at the local church. Most are dusted down and placed on flower-decked thrones at Easter-time when they are lovingly and solemnly borne through the streets. The Virgen del Carmen, however, has her own special day.
See the 2022 poster. Each June, the annual Malaga Feria poster is presented. A panel selects five finalists of which the winner is chosen by a popular online vote by Malaga residents.
Possibly you thought the Christmas season was over on New Year’s Eve, but in Spain this is just the mid-point of all the celebrating. In this country, the tradition is to have a rather late dinner with your family – just one more rich, elaborate dinner, of course, complete with all the pastries, dried fruits and nuts and mountains of turrón that finish every meal at this time of year.
On 11th November, is the occasion for the slaughtering of pigs, in preparation for the winter-time drying of hams and sausages, at a fiesta called la matanza - literally, the killing - in all the towns and villages of the mountain areas of Andalucia.
Estepona Summer Feria takes place the first week in July from Tuesday to Sunday and gives everyone a week to enjoy dancing, drinking and eating. Both the day fair and the night fair take place at the 'Parque Ferial y Deportivo' located at the top of Avenida Juan Carlos I next to the A-7 coast road that by-passes Estepona.
The most important traditional festivals celebrated in Fuensanta de Martos are:
Cascamorras festival in the towns of Guadix and Baza has been declared Festival of International Tourism interest due to its intriguing history. Although the festival is relatively little-known outside Granada province, by latest estimates up to 20,000 people take part, running through the streets and covering each other in black olive oil in Baza and coloured paste in Guadix.
The May Crosses Festival (Cruces de Mayo) is celebrated in many parts of the world, especially in Latin America and Spain. In Cordoba festival holds special importance and is the best known of the festival locations in Andalucia.
One of Andalucia’s most picturesque “romerías” traditionally took place every year in Ronda on a Sunday late in May or early in June. However in late 2016 it was decided to change the date to the first Sunday in May. This is the Virgen de la Cabeza pilgrimage and it fills Ronda with bright colours and festive music with a procession that brings the “Virgin of the Head” statue from the la Merced Church, across the famous “Puente Nuevo” with its dizzying views and out of town to the hermitage.
The Cordoba Spring Fair, or Feria de Nuestra Señora de la Salud (Our Lady of the Health), takes place during the last week of May. Its venue is the municipal fairground on the north bank of the River Guadalquivir, a few kilometres to the south-east of the city. The recinto is called El Real de Arenal, which means the sandy area. This Feria dates from 1284, as a livestock market on Pentecost Sunday.
On the 15th May Estepona celebrates the day of its patron saint, San Isidro Labrador (the Farmer), with a procession starting at San José church in the old town and making its way around the centre before returning back to the church.
As you can imagine, after the harvest there’s a celebration. The villages of Igualeja and Cartajima celebrate their Tostón on 1st November with roasted chestnuts and anis. However, the place to celebrate the chestnut in style is Pujerra. Pujerra holds its festival from 1st to the 3rd of November dedicated to the Virgin Fatima, the village’s saint.
