| The Spanish don't need much of a reason
to have a party and/or set off some fireworks
and there's hardly a month goes by during
the year when there isn't a celebration of
some kind or another going on.
Here are some of the main public holidays
and celebrations, although there are others.
January 5 th – Festividad
de Los Reyes Magos (The Festival
of the 3 Kings arrival in Bethlehem ) Celebrated
in most towns and cities across the whole
of Spain .
February – Los
Alcazares, along with most of the towns on
the Mar Menor has it's Annual Carnival. The
most historically spectacular Carnival in
the Murcia Region take place an hour down
the coast in the town of Aguilas , where
the whole town comes out to celebrate and
to choose their Carnival Queen.
March 24 th – 27
th . The
Tamborada Festival in the Murcian
towns of Moratalla and Mula celebrates
the Passion of the Christ with the pounding
of a thousand drums over three crazy days
in March.
Easter – Semana
Santa (Saints week or Holy Week)
Celebrated across the whole of Spain , but
easily the biggest Semana Santa celebrations
in the region are in the Capital Murcia.
Smaller, but no less colourful festivities
take place in nearby Cartagena and San Pedro
del Pinatar.
April - The Burial of the Sardine ,
the climax of the Spring festivities, is Murcia 's
wackiest night of the year. On the first
Saturday in April, and looking like a cross
between Rio's famous carnival and ‘It's a
Knockout' a crazy cavalcade of giants and
big-heads, torch-bearers and entertainers,
demons and Brazilian samba groups escort
a fleet of some twenty floats, which will
throw hundreds of thousands of euros worth
of toys and gifts into the crowd in the space
of just a few hours.
Over the previous days, there are marches
through the streets with brass bands and
on the night of the eve of the Burial, the
Testament of Doña Sardina (Ms Sardine)
is read from the balcony of the Town Hall.
The fiesta ends in the early hours of the
morning, when, a papier-mâché effigy
of the Lenten sardine is burnt in the Plano
de San Francisco amid public rejoicing.
May – La Manga
Fiesta incorporating the La Manga
Ladies Windsurfing Championships.
1 st – 5 th May. The Festival of
the Holy Cross in Caravaca de la Cruz includes
the famous ‘ Race of the Wine Horses' where
the horses used in the Vineyards are raced
through the streets to the Castle at the
top of the town.
July – The
San Javier Music Festival runs throughout
the whole of July featuring leading Jazz & Blues artists, but there are some
rock, pop & folk acts appearing as well
from time to time.
The Festividad de la Virgin del
Carmen (The Festival of the Virgin
Madonna of the Sea) includes street processions,
fireworks and the symbolic burning of an
artificial castle as well as a procession
of boats which scatter flowers on the sea.
Celebrations of this festival take place
on the 16 th in Los Alcazares, Santiago
de la Ribera, Lo Pagan, Cabo de Palos and
Cartagena and again on the 25 th in Santiago
de la Ribera and Cartagena .
August – A
month-long International
Festival of Theatre, Music & Dance takes
place in San Javier.
A Flamenco Festival takes
place in the former mining town of La Union
.
There is a folklore festival in Cartagena
and there is week long Festival of
La Huerta (The Market Garden) in
Los Alcazares.
September – In
Cartagena you can watch colourful mock battles
in the street re-enacting the struggle between the
Carthaginians and the Romans .
October – From
8 th to 13 th October, Los Alcazares has
a week long celebration of the town's municipal
autonomy, during which there are fireworks
displays, processions, the Mar Menor Surfari Windsurfing
competition and the ‘Caldero' Festival where
the local fisherman light fires on the beach
and cook their catch in hanging cauldrons
for the consumption of the public.
November – Cartagena
Jazz Festival takes
place.
December – on
the 3 rd December there is the Fiesta de San
Francisco de San Javier (Saint
Francis of San Javier) during which there
are sports, games, exhibitions and concerts.
Christmas! |
