A small rock in the Atlantic

The Octopus's Funeral, Los Cancajos

The octopus's funeral procession, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

The octopus's funeral procession

Most places in Spain end Carnival with a mock funeral for a sardine. Los Cancajos decided to have a few carnival events this year, ending in an Octopus's funeral (just for a change).

Close up of the octopus, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

Close up of the octopus

But the weather was terrible, and they postponed it for two weeks. And when the new date came around, there weather was terrible again, and they had to postpone it again!

The percussion band for the Octopus's Funeral, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

The percussion band

Third time lucky - the funeral went ahead last night. A percussion band (a batucada) provided the music.

The Master of Ceremonies for the octopus's funeral, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

The Master of Ceremonies

The master of ceremonies, looked rather fine as he led the way, keeping the octopus and band together.

The octopus's cremation, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

The procession went through the village and down to the beach, where they cremated it and let off the fireworks.

Fireworks at the octopus's funeral, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

We left, just as the band was starting up for the public dance. It was great fun, and I'm sure they'll do it again next year.

The band

Labels: Breña Baja, Carnival, fiesta, La Palma, Los Cancajos

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An Octupus and a Sardine

Poster for the Octopus's Funeral, Los Cancajos, La Palma Island

The Octopus's funeral has been rescheduled for Friday 26th.

The procession will leave the pharmacy at 8 pm and make its way to the beach, where the octopus will be cremated. There will be fireworks and dancing. Everybody welcome.
This is a new fiesta, so it'll be interesting to see

Meanwhile the sardine's funeral at Los Sauces will take place on Saturday 27th. The percussion music starts at 8 pm and the funeral procession starts at 9:30 pm in the main square by the church. Last time I saw it, it was wonderful.

And I believe that Barlovento will hold their sardine's funeral the weekend after, on March 5th or 6th. Watch this space.

Poster for the Sardine's Funeral, Los Sauces, La PAlma island

Labels: Breña Baja, Cancajos, carnival programme, fiesta, La Palma, Los Sauces, San Andres y Sauces, Sardine's Funeral

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Almond Blosson on La Palma

Almond blossom in Garafia, La Palma Island

Almond blossom in Garafia

The north-west of the island is home to great many almond trees, and at this time of the year, they're all blossoming.

The trees in El Paso and Garafía are beautiful, but the best display of all is at Puntagorda. In fact Puntagorda hosts an annual almond blossom fiesta. The date varies -- the Town Hall sets it a couple of weeks in advance, to (hopefully) coincide with the best blossom.

At noon on Sunday, February 1st, there's the traditional pensioners' almond cracking contest. The winner will be the person who produces the most shelled and unbroken almonds.

On Friday 5th there will be football competitions (for men and women)at 4pm, plus a disco in the community hall at 10 pm followed by and music in the street.

On Saturday 6th at 10 pm there will be a concert and dance in the Community Centre, followed by music and dancing in the street.

The main day is Sunday 7th.

Starting at noon, they'll have bouncy castles in the school playground, and a photo exhibition in the cultural centre (about the delightfully silly Battle of Lepanto fiesta in Barlovento), and dances in the cultural centre, the sports centre, and the street,

I expect they'll have the usual street market, and they'll be giving out free wine and almonds. Be warned that the wine may well have been stored in barrels made of tea (pronounced tay-ah) which gives it a resiny taste. Some people love it. I don't.

The programme is up on the web at http://almendros.puntagorda.es/.

Almond blossom in Puntagorda, La Palma island

Almond blossom from the Mirador (viewpoint) de Millflores in Puntagorda

Labels: almond blossom, El Paso, fiesta, Garafía, La Palma, Puntagorda

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Corpus Christi in San Jose

San Jose main street at Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi in San Jose isn't nearly as spectacular as it is in Mazo, but it's still very nice. Since the whole thing takes out on a flat, tarmaced street, the tradition is to make carpets of coloured salt, with the altars being much more modest. This year, many of the carpets are made from seeds and petals, like in Mazo.

This carpet is by the Residents' Association from El Socorro.

Much as I love the petals, I think it's a mistake for San Jose to become a second-rate Mazo. I prefer salt (which I suspect wouldn't work on Mazo's steep cobbles, anyway). You can have brighter colours and finer detail.

And this one is by the village children

Labels: Breña Baja, Corpus Christi, fiesta, San Jose

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San Antonio del Monte

Yesterday was the biggest livestock fair on the island.

San Antonio del Monte used to be a village, but the villagers moved away. About the only thing that's left is the church of St. Anthony and the feast day, with it's massive fair. Apart from the animals, there's a craft fair, and of course lots of stalls selling cheap toys, food and drink.

It's a pretty enough little church, and for most of the day it's crowded with people visiting the saint and touching his belt.

After the mass, the statues are taken out to the fairground in a procession, and the priest blesses the animals.

Normally, it's baking hot at the fair, but as you can see, we were in the clouds yesterday. This wasn't good for photography, but it was a lot more comfortable.

After the procession and blessing, they have live music and dancing.

Labels: fiesta, Garafia, san antonio

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Corpus in Mazo - Photos of this year

Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) is a big festival in Mazo. They decorate the streets with spectacular archways and carpets covered with flowers, seeds and leaves.

People collect the materials and work on intensively the pieces a couple of weeks in advance, but the archways are erected a Wednesday night. But they had a problem with the crane, and they were still putting up the last of them when I arrived on Thursday morning.

The largest archway is always in the square near the top of the street, and I found it still laid out on trestles, waiting for assembly. This meant that I could get close-up shots of things which would later be ten metres (33ft) up in the air.

The carpets beneath the archways are made using things rather like wrought iron gates, as stencils. They lay the "gate" down on the sand, fill the sections with petals or whatever, squirt with water-with-a-bit-of-glue-in-it, and lift the gate up again.

Each archway includes a small altar. I've been photographing them for years without really wondering why they were there.

This year I finally got to seed the procession, and it became clear. The fiesta is in honour of the body of Christ.

During a normal Catholic mass, this is put into a special vessel called a monstrance.
In this procession, the priest walks on the flower carpets carrying the monstrance: everybody else walks along the sides. As the priest reaches each archway, he places the monstrance on the little altar, kneels, and wafts incense towards it.

The main feast day is ten weeks after Maundy Thursday, so this year it was on the 11th of June. If you're impressed enough to book a holiday to see next year's Corpus Christi, it'll be on June 3rd.

Labels: Corpus Christi, fiesta, Mazo

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San Isidro Livestock Fair

Saint Isidore the Laborer

This weekend they're holding the second biggest livestock fair on the island, at San Isidro, in Breña Alta. (The biggest is San Antonio del Monte, in June).

It starts off with a procession which brings the statue of the saint from the church to the fairground. Sorry, I missed that bit (I was having a lie in)

Cattle at the fair of St. Isidore, Breña Alta

People bring their animals, and there are prizes for the best milk cow, best bull, best goat, etc. Most of the animals are tied up in big field while they wait for the judging, and you can go around admiring them. (I hope someone brings them water later.) The priest blesses the animals, and they have a competition to see which bulls can drag a heavy stone the fastest. (I missed that, too. I was teaching.) Later on tonight they'll be a dance.

Tomorrow they have bouncy castles for the kids, a cycle race, and a horse race. And at 8:30 pm, a procession takes the statue of the saint back to the church.

Labels: Breña Alta, fiesta, May 15th, San Isidro

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Almond Blossom

The north-west of the island is home to great many almond trees, and at this time of the year, they're all blossoming.

The trees in El Paso and Garafía are beautiful, but the best display of all is at Puntagorda. In fact Puntagorda hosts an annual almond blossom fiesta. The date varies -- the Town Hall sets it a couple of weeks in advance, to (hopefully) coincide with the best blossom. This year we've had a rather cold winter, so it's a little later than usual, on February 8th.
Almond blossom, La Palma, Canary Islands