Our image of Spain never fails to include a few of the following: flamenco dancers, paella, controversial bull fights and copious amounts of blood red sangria. Travellers come from all over for La Sagrada Familia, to eat tapas in Barcelona, or to visit one of the famed festivals such as the Tomatina or running of the bulls in Pamplona.
There are, however, other, largely undiscovered festivals that the tourist guide books and websites have yet to fully uncover. I'll tell you about a few...
First up, is the festival of the Three Kings (Reyes Magos). This celebration takes place all over Spain, in almost every town, and involves men on horseback trotting through the town delivering sweets to the gleeful children. Two particularly special locations, however, are Los Cristianos and Costa Adeje in Tenerife, where the kings arrive in unusually celebrity-esque style. In Los Cristianos, it’s on horseback, via boat, arriving into the town’s harbour. whereas in Costa Adeje, the kings are dramatically dropped in via helicopter. If you decide to make a visit to the south of the island to watch the parades, check out the other events and things to do close by; trips such as whale watching and Harley tours will definitely make the travel time worthwhile.
For all fully fledged or budding alcoholics, it would be a crime not to mention Spain's elaborate wine festival. Every year on June 19th, locals and travellers traverse a mountain to douse each other in red wine. This event takes place in La Rioja (yes, that’s where the name on those bottles littering your kitchen floor comes from!), and vans full of red wine wait in the streets, ready to give you a refill when your water pistol runs out of attack-juice.
Another Canary Island classic is Los Indianos. This time, the festival is in celebration of Spanish immigrants who left the country seeking fortune, and returned to its shores as new, moneyed citizens. To celebrate, locals and travellers from other islands dress up head to toe in white, which resembles the newly returned nouveau riche. They then proceed to cover eachother head to toe in talcum powder during a giant talc-war.
Another white-powder throwing festival takes place on December 28th in Alicante. This festival, named Dia de los Inocentes is similar to April Fools. In Ibi, instead of pranks they take to the streets to drown one another in puffs of white flour.
In Piornal on Saint Sebastian’s Day, festival-goers take to the street and battle with slightly less safety-friendly weapons and ammunition. As one poor soul plods the streets dressed as Jarramplas (a devil-like creature), turnip-wielding festival attendants pelt him or her with the vegetable. That’s right; raw, solid, uncooked turnips. As far as reports go, the Jarramplas usually survives this festival, and the turnips are a necessary means to ward off negativity. Presumably the throwing also goes a little way to winding down some of the testosterone levels in the village, too.
This summary is by no means complete; we haven't even mentioned the delicious meringue-batter throwing festival in Barcelona, or the festival where grown men jump over babies in the street, but as a sample hopefully it shows at least a little of Spanish life beyond the sangria.
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