A small rock in the Atlantic

Sunday, 28 September 2008

Fiesta in Tazacorte Tonight

Monday is the feast day of St Michael Archangel. Although he's the patron saint of the whole island, shops will be shut only in Santa Cruz and Tazacorte - that's the main town, not Puerto Tazacorte.

It's traditional to hold the best bit of a fiesta on the night before the public holiday, so you can party half the night without worrying about the alarm clock drilling into your hangover the morning after. In this case, it's the Caballos Fufu in Tazacorte at 9pm. These are pretend horses, made of cane and covered with strips of brightly coloured paper. Each one has a hole inthe middle of the back for the "rider", and they dance through the streets, led by a giraffe. At 10:30 pm there's a parade of "artistic floats".

Then on Monday, there's a special mass at 7.oo am (I'll give that a miss, myself). At 11:30 the air force will fly over. And there's mass again at noon (sung) and 7:30p, followed by a procession with the statue, with fireworks. (I'm not sure if this means pretty fireworks, or just the annoying bangs they usually have with processions here.) At the end, the town band will sing a hymn in honour of St Michael.

Labels: caballos fufu, fiestas, La Palma, La Plama, Puerto Tazacorte

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Thursday, 17 July 2008

Wednesday was the Fiesta del Carmen, which is celebrated in Santa Cruz and Puerto Tazacorte. They have a special mass, and then they take the statue of the Virgin of Carmen out for a procession. So far, so much like most fiestas on the island. Only in this case, they take the statue of the virgin out on a boat parade, to bless the fishermen.

These photos are fromPuerto Tazacorte. The boats go from the harbour, round to the bay just off the beach, where they sail in circles for a while before heading back to port. Then they have fireworks.