Fiestas in Breña Baja

Los Cancajos
They'll be having yet another attempt to cremate the octopus in Los Cancajos on Friday 12th, starting at 8pm. This was supposed to happen during Carnival, but it's been postponed twice due to bad weather. The town hall assures everyone that the octopus won't have gone smelly, because it's been frozen during the wait.
[This is a joke. I'm sure it isn't a real octopus.]
Anyway, the procession will leave at 8 pm from the chemist's near the south end of the village.

San José
Spain celebrates Father's Day on March 19th, because that's St Joseph's day. Since the Spanish for St Joseph is San José, the village of San José will hold fiestas, starting on Friday 12th at 5 pm. There will be various sporting events and talks, an exhibition of oil paintings which opens on Monday evening, and films (in Spanish) . There'll be a special mass on Friday evening (the 19th) and on Saturday there's a hike, bouncy castles and a horse race. In the evening, there's batucada (serious percussion) a stage performance by the kids, and a disco.

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Puntagorda's Almond Blossom Fiesta

Puntagorda fiesta: almond blossom

La Palma isn't a big island, but it still takes almost 2 hours to drive from Breña Baja to Puntagorda. I found most of the blossom had been spoiled by the bad weather last week, but it was still pretty. (In a good year, the whole hillside turns pink.) Then I got sidetracked into visiting a friend's barbecue, and very nice, too. I finally got to the main fiesta just as they were packing up, at 10 pm. This is amazingly early for a Canarian fiesta, but they danced half the night on Saturday, and they all had to get up on Monday morning.

Puntagorda fiesta: Hippy playing a didgeridoo

A lot of German hippies live in and around Puntagorda, and they seem to get on very well with the locals. Here's one playing the didgeridoo at the end of the fiesta.

Puntagorda fiesta: the debris

You can see that people had a good time! One of the locals was embarrassed to see my photographing this, but I don't like rooms that are so tidy you're scared to sit down, and I think villages are supposed to get messy when they've had a good party. Besides, the street cleaners were already hard at work, and I expect it'll all be clean and tidy by the time I post this.

Puntagorda fiesta: The last bar open

Even though the band had left, and most of the stalls were packing up, a few people still gathered round the last open bar. As usual, people were merry, but nobody was outright drunk, and nobody was annoying. In fact I got two offers of bed and breakfast, but neither gentleman took offence when I said that, sorry, I was going home to my husband.

Puntagorda fiesta: the last few revelers

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The Kings are Coming to La Palma!

Gaspar visiting Santa Cruz de la Palma

Although Father Christmas does visit Spanish children, he's a new arrival. Traditionally the presents arrive on the morning of January 6th, when the three kings visit baby Jesus. This is why the sales haven't really started yet - Christmas isn't over here. And on the evening of the 5th, they ride in procession through most of the major towns and villages in Spain. In previous years we've usually gone to see the procession in Santa Cruz. They start at the south end of town and meet up at the Plaza España, where they find they're all following the same star and agree to travel together. When they get to the Alemeda, they find King Herod's court. Of course, he wants to know what they're doing in his country, and then makes them promise to tell him where the child is. They travel up the baranco from the concrete ship, and find Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a cave, and leave their presents. Then finally, an angel tells them not to even think about telling Herod where to find Jesus.

At that point they light the bonfires in the (hopefully dry) river bed and set off the fireworks.

There's a list of processions on La Palma at the end of the post. I'm surprised here's no mention of the one in Santo Domingo de Garafía, which is supposed to be particularly good. Traditionally it starts at 10pm, and there's a long drive back for me, which is why I've never seen it.

The shops will stay open at least until midnight for people who've left buying presents until the last minute. Tuesday is a public holiday, and the sales start on Wednesday - if you've got any money left by then.

Gran Cabalgata de Reyes (The procession of the Three Wise Men)

• Santa Cruz de la Palma: at 19.00. Itinerary: Plaza de la Constitución, Calle O'Daly, Pérez de Brito, Doctor Pérez Camacho and Avenida de las Nieves up to las Cuevas de Carías.
• Villa de Mazo: at 18.30. From Monumento de la Paz up to la Plaza.
• Puntagorda: at 18.00. From Telecentro cultural del Roque
• Tazacorte: at 19.00.
• Los Llanos de Aridane: at 18.00. Itinerary: Avda.Enrique Mederos up to Plaza de España
• Breña Baja:at 17.00 at Los Cancajos. Itinerary: From the "Las Olas" apartments up to the tourist information office
• San Andrés y Sauces: at 19.30 at Plaza de Monserrat

Sorry this post is a bit late. I've got flu and our internet connection wasn't working earlier. I just hope thier majesties know that I've been a good girl, because bad children traditionally get coal.
Baltazar visiting Santa Cruz de la Palma

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New Year on La Palma

New Year fireworks in Santa Cruz de la Palma, 2009

The Spanish celebrate New Year in a big way. A lot of people go out for an expensive meal wearing evening dress - the the sort of thing I associate with Glyndebourne Opera. Most restaurants offer a special menu, and you have to book well in advance.

This year, large family parties were back in fashion, because they're cheaper. I've usually gone to a family party, but this year we went "parted the year" (as they say in Spanish) with friends in Garafía.

There's an old superstition that if you manage to eat one grape for each of the 12 "boings" at midnight, it'll bring you good luck in the coming year. That's why grapes suddenly got very expensive in the last few days, and yes, restaurants provide you with exactly 12 grapes for midnight, plus a glass of champagne. (I didn't bother with grapes, myself. I'm not superstitious, and I'm trying to get into the habit of eating more slowly.)

At midnight, they have fireworks, which, of course, we couldn't see any from the wilds of Garafía. Then the live music starts in the Plaza España, and the dancing goes on until morning. I'm afraid I missed that, because we both have heavy colds and just wanted to sleep.

And may 2010 bring you whatever you most wish for. In my case, an un-bunged nose, for starters.

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San Martin

While most of Europe celebrates Remembrance Day, here it's St. Martin's Day - San Martin. (Spain was officially neutral in both world wars, so they don't have a Remembrance Day).

San Martin is traditionally when the chestnuts are ready to pick, and the new wine from the summer's grape harvest is ready to drink. (Although with global warming, the chestnuts have been in the shops for weeks.) So most families go off to the bodega (wine store) for a wine-and-chestnuts party. The more traditional ones blow conchs.

On Saturday they were handing out free wine and roasted chestnuts at Mazo market. Delicious!

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Meeting the Devil

The devil arriving at the fiesta, San Miguel, Breña Alta

La Palma has several fiestas where the devil appears. On Saturday night I went to one in San Miguel, a little village in Breña Alta. It started off like most fiestas - a band playing in the village square, with a couple of kiosks selling drinks and snacks, and a stall selling cheap kid's toys. Then, a little after 1 am, a group of special characters arrived: giants and "big heads" (cabezudos). They're a staple of Palmeran fiestas. The "big heads" are people in costumes including an outsize, moulded head. This lot included a couple of Snow White's dwarves, a wizard, Bart Simpson, and two witches, which is traditional. As usual, the witches had soft plastic sticks to whack people with, which is the bit the older kids love best. The giants are extra tall costumes, maybe twelve feet tall, which must be rather difficult to steer.



The devil, spouting fire at San Miguel, Brena Alta

The whole procession works its way down the hill, until it's below the square with the dancing. Then the devil appears with them. It's a man in a costume including a "big head", with fireworks on his trident and the head. He works his way up the hill again, to just above the church.

Then the cross lights up with fireworks, and the devil promptly scarpers.

And then they light more fireworks, set up to spin like catherine wheels.



Catherine Wheels

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Fiestas in Early September

There are two nice fiestas coming up at the beginning of September.

In El Paso, the statue of the Virgin of the Pine was carried in procession from the hermitage up in the mountain down to the village. On September 6th, there will be another procession to carry it back.


The Devil's dance, Tijarafe, 2007.

In Tijarafe in the early hours of September 8th, the devil will join the dance. This is a man in a suit covered with lit fireworks, and no, I don't think it's entirely safe. On the other hand, I've never heard of any bad accidents, and it's certainly memorable and great fun. The party starts the night before, of course, with the usual music, dancing, and mobile bars.

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Saturday is a Public Holiday

The 15th of August is a public holiday on La Palma. (Concepción Inmaculada, the Immaculate Conception) Most of the shops will be closed. If you can get to the village of Concepción, above Santa Cruz de la Palma, theyĺl be having their annual fiesta: lots of mobile bars blasting out salsa music, lots of stalls selling cheap toys, a religious procession, and probably a live band.

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Fiestas in Las Nieves and El Paso

Inside Las Nieves Church

Today is the fiesta of the patron saint of La Palma, the Virgin of Las Nieves. It's also a public holiday for the whole island.

Las Nieves is about 2 km inland from Santa Cruz de la Palma. When I went this morning, it was impossible to park within a mile of the fiesta. Sorry, I just turned around and went home. I expect it's much like other years - lots of stalls selling food and drink and souvenirs, and a religious procession at some point in the day.

Meanwhile, El Paso has it's once-every-three-years fiesta going on for most of the month. They have things going on all month, but the main event is the romería on Sunday 16th. This is a cross between a religious procession and a party, where they take the statue of the Virgin on the Pine from the hermitage of the same name, to the church in the town. Romerías are usually great fun, with people taking along instruments to sing folk songs on the way, and wagons handing out free food and drink - usually friend pork and wine.

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Procession for the Sacred Heart

They have lots of religious processions on La Palma, where they take the statue out of the church and around the neighbourhood streets, with music provided by the town band. A lot of the statues are beautiful, but if you see a lot of these processions, they do get a bit samey.

This one started much like all the others, only on the salt carpet. But when they got halfway along the first carpet, the statue stopped and brightly coloured bits of paper and bougainvillea petals started raining down from a nearby rooftop, which was very pretty indeed. (I found out later that the papers had "The promises of the Sacred Heart" printed on them - at least twelve different ones.) And the kids scrambled to collect the papers while they released some doves.

At the end of the first carpet, the procession stopped again, beside the old church, where the choir sang about "The Source of Love" - and sang it very well, too.

Then the procession went off through the carpet and pictures of houses, and on round the back streets.

I left the procession to get ready for them coming up the hill through the other archways. And I waited, and waited and waited. It must have been a very long procession, because they still hadn't appeared an hour later.

So I gave up and went home.

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Archways for the Sacred Heart

Ahem. When I said "...more photos tomorrow", I actually meant "mañana".



The salt carpets aren't the only thing. They also make wonderful archways, similar to those in Mazo. Well, as you can see, these days some of them aren't arches. In this case the carpet is leaves from tree-heathers, laid down with a garden seive. Like the ones in Mazo, they're decorated with seeds and flowers.



Unlike the ones in Mazo, a lot of the fine detail is done with crushed and dyed eggshells.



This archway features the twelve apostles.


Centuries ago, the Virgin Mary appeared in a pine tree in the mountains above the village. (More on that another day.)



And this one celebrates the local silk industry. (More on that another day, too.)

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The Sacred Heart

It's El Paso's main fiesta, The Sacred Heart (El Corazon Sagrado). Like Mazo and San José, they make archways and carpets, but they're slightly different.

In San José, they dye the salt, and then put the colours together to make the picture. In El Paso, they start by putting down white salt --kilos and kilos of it from the salt pans in the southern tip of the island.



They carefully put a stencil on top, and spray on the various colours until the design's complete.



In this case, they added a table on top with a statue of the Virgin, and then this man started retouching.



There will be a procession this evening after the special mass at 7 pm.

More photos tomorrow.

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Mother's Day Again

Mother's Day in most of Spain was last week, the first Sunday in May. But Breña Bajae celebrates it on the third Sunday in May - today. A local poet called Felix Duarte (1895-1990) emigrated to Venezuela, alone, at some horrendously young age (15, I think) and boy did he miss his mum. He became a published poet, and moved to Cuba and later, the United States. He finally came home in 1930, and by 1936 he'd persuaded the town hall to start mother's day here, the first village in Spain to eclebrate mothers.

They usually have a concert or two, with music and maybe poems in praise of mothers. This year that was Friday and Saturday. Today they have a special sung mass, and they give out flowers. You get a red rose if your mother is still alive, and a white one if she's passed on.

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The Virgin of Fatima in La Punta

Mass for the Virgin of Fatima, La Punta

Last night I went to the fiesta for The Virgin of Fatima in La Punta, in the municipality of Tijarafe. Things didn't go according to plan (see my personal blog, but I had a good time.


Procession

La Punta is just a hamlet. Like most small villages, the main annual fiesta is the saint's day of the village's patron saint. Practically all such fiestas include a special mass and a procession with the statue of the saint, and so did this one.


Living Picture

Most fiestas include something else, which varies from village to village. Tijarafe town all told me that there wasn't anything else at La Punta, but they had a living picture, which someone gave a short speech in honour of the Virgin.


Fireworks

And then we had fireworks. Rather good ones in my opinion, considering the size of the place.


The Dance Floor

And the dance was just getting started as I left. I had to get up this morning. Since they have today off work they probably partied until 2 am at least.

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Our Lady of Monserrat

Yesterday was the fiesta of Our Lady of Monserrat in Los Sauces. They held a special mass, followed by a procession with the statue. Religious art isn't really my thing, but it's a beautiful statue.

The procession follows a fairly long route: the building in the background is the church, and they're just beginning. I had to miss the rest of the procession and the loa (see yesterday) due to a previous commitment.

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Fiesta in Los Sauces tonight

Today is a local holiday in Los Sauces, for the fiesta or Our Lady of Monserrat. Other than the day off work, it's a purely religious festival. Tonight at 6:30 pm they'll be a special mass in the church (the big church on the main square on the main street - very easy to find.) This will be followed by a procession with the statue of Our Lady, and then a loa.

A loa is absolutely nothing to do with the voodoo loas. In Spain, it's a musical dialogue between two singers, usually dressed in costume. I believe at Los Sauces, they're traditionally dressed as angels, and it's very pretty.

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Blessing the Animals

Today is the fiesta of San Antonio Abad (St. Anthony the Abbot) in Fuencaliente, and at midday the priest held a special, traditional service to bless the animals in the church square. I was curious, so I went.

I didn't know whether to expect pets or farm animals, but there were both. At twelve promptly, the priest came out, gave a short sermon on looking after your animals, said a prayer, and then sprinkled the animals with holy water.

When the cat got wet, he said something you don't expect to hear in church, but everyone else seemed happy.

Members of the congregation

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The Kings are Coming!

Although Father Christmas does visit Spanish children, he's a new arrival. Traditionally the presents arrive on the morning of January 6th, when the three kings visit baby Jesus. This is why the sales haven't really started yet - Christmas isn't over here. And on the evening of the 5th, they ride in procession through most of the major towns and villages in Spain. In previous years we've usually gone to see the procession in Santa Cruz. They start at the south end of town and meet up at the Plaza España, where they find they're all following the same star and agree to travel together. When they get to the Alemeda, they find King Herod's court. Of course, he wants to know what they're doing in his country, and then makes them promise to tell him where the child is. They travel up the baranco from the concrete ship, and find Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a cave, and leave their presents. Then finally, an angel tells them not to even think about telling Herod where to find Jesus.

At that point they light the bonfires in the (hopefully dry) river bed and set off the fireworks.

There are also processions in Los Sauces and Santo Domingo de Garafía. The latter is supposed to be particularly good, but it doesn't start until 10pm, so I'm going to give it a miss.

The shops will stay open at least until midnight for people who've left buying presents until the last minute. Tuesday is a public holiday, and the sales start on Wednesday - if you've got any money left by then.

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Constitution Day

Today is a national holiday - Constiution Day, which is something like July4th for Americans, only with a lot less pazazz. We'll be meeting the extended family at the bodega for a meal.

But you know, I think the constitution is something to celebrate. I don't want to sound pompous here, but real democracy makes such a huge difference - just ask a Zimbabwean. It's so nice to say what you think, without worrying about a knock onthe door at 3 am.

Less dramatically, one of my parents' most vivid memories of a holiday in Romania was the man they saw watering the grass with a hosepipe in the middle of a downpour. The poor guy was soaked. But as soon as you don't dare say, "Hang on, that's a bit daft isn't it?" you're going to get an awful lot of that sort of thing. If you multiply that sort of idiocy by the number of times it happens, you begin to see why communist economies tended to stagnate. And then there's all the people who tell their boss what he wants to hear (because the truth might land then in jail), and the boss goes and makes decisions based on this misinformation.

Democracy isn't a luxury that only rich countries can afford. It's a large part of the reason that they're rich.

I will now get off my soapbox to tell you that Monday 8th is another national holiday, namely holy conception. So tomorrow, Sunday, most of the supermarkets will open.

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The Day of the Dead

Halloween isn't much of a fiesta here, although it's becoming more popular. All Saint's Day is. Traditionally, it's when people remember their dead. So they decorate the graves in the morning, and most cemeteries have a special mass.

It's fascinating to see, but please be sensitive. Some people may be recently bereaved and feeling fragile.

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Fufo horses

Fufo horses in Tazacorte.

Today (Monday 29th) is the feast day of St Michael. Since he's the patron saint of Tazacorte, last night the town celebrated with their famous dancing horses. Famous on La Palma, at least.
Would you believe, it's the first time I've seen this in almost 18 years of living here.


The crowd following the fufo horses.

Well, it's fun. As you can see, a horse-shaped frame gets covered with strips of brightly coloured tissue paper. The "jockey" fits through the middle, and makes the horses dance. Altogether, there's about a dozen horses and one giraffe. Actually, whoever made the giraffe didn't spend a whole lot of time in zoos. It's exactly like the horses, except that the neck is a lot longer.



Fufo horse in Tazacorte.

The procession stars near the town hall. The band plays Mexican music, and horses move very fast, which makes it very hard to get a good photo, especially since there isn't much light available. They dance through the streets for maybe a kilometre, and then they have a break. at this point, a lot of people get their photos taken with the horses. Mostly, I think, children from the town. (Like most fiestas on La Palma, tourists are welcome to join in, but the locals do it for themselves.)



Tea break for the dancers. Well, probably not tea.

And then they dance their way back to the town hall, where the dance speesd up, and the crowd mixes in with the horses. By that time, the crowd were singing, Lo que pasa es que la banda esta boracha - "The thing is, the band's got drunk." They certainly weren't, you know, because they kept perfect time as the music got faster and faster and the dancing got wilder and wilder.


Fufo horses in Tazacorte.

One website says the horses date back to the 19th century, while the book on Palmeran fiestas says it was brought from Cuba "in the twenties", and the horses originally danced during carnival. I haven't been able to find out what the word fufo means. There is a Mexican word fufu, which means "to rebel against a difficult situation, like a spitting cat."

Fufo horses in Tazacorte in front of the Town hall.

And after the horses, there's a parade of carnival-style floats. To my surprise, there were only three of them, but they were beautiful.

Peter Pan float, Tazacorte fiesta

The beauty queens, Tazacorte fiesta

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