Traditions in Spain range from somber religious processions to ancient pagan rituals and the frivolous fun of the world’s biggest food fight. One thing’s for sure: Spanish traditions are all about passion and emotion, family and friends, a sense of community, and a desire to preserve the country’s vivid culture.
The Spanish love a party and will find any excuse to celebrate. Every town has its patron saint, whose day is marked with feasting and processions. Different regions have their own art forms, from the elaborate fallas in Valencia to the intensity of flamenco in Andalucia.
Other traditions in Spain are woven into everyday life; meeting friends for tapas, or being swept away by the drama of big soccer matches, for example. Embrace some of these for yourself when you visit and you’ll gain a better understanding of this fascinating country.
Semana Santa
Semana Santa procession
Easter week, or Holy Week in Spain is a major event in the religious and cultural calendar. It’s a somber but dramatic occasion and is celebrated in every town and village. This is a time of processions, of drum beats, and vast carpets of flowers.
Depending on where you are, you will see parades of church brotherhoods bearing elaborate statues that tell the story of the Passion of Christ. Highly decorated floats move slowly through the crowds. Locals dress in costume, ranging from the garb of the brotherhoods to mysterious looking penitents, or nazarenos, some of whom are barefoot or carrying large wooden crosses. The penitents are often followed by women dressed in black and wearing elaborate headdresses. Special songs, called saetas, with their origins in flamenco, are sung.
On Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, a parade known as La Madrugá takes place throughout the night. Church services take place all weekend, culminating in a mood of joy to celebrate the Resurrection.
La Tomatina
La Tomatina
If you like your festivals messy, this mass tomato fight at Buñol, near Valencia, is the one for you. The festival, La Tomatina, is a fairly recent one, dating back to 1945. It’s believed to originate from a spontaneous food fight that broke out during a parade celebrating the town’s saint’s day.
La Tomatina takes place on the last Wednesday in August and draws participants from all over the world. The fun starts at 9 am in the town square with a competition to climb a slippery pole to reach a leg of ham. Onlookers tip buckets of water from balconies to get the madness started.
At 11 am, on the shot of a gun, trucks laden with overripe tomatoes enter the square and discharge their cargo. Mayhem breaks out as people seize handfuls of tomatoes and pelt one another with the fruit. The battle continues until a second shot is fired, after which the by-now scarlet participants are hosed down.
Bullfighting
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a deeply controversial Spanish tradition but many see it as deeply ingrained in their culture. Bullfighting has been banned in some parts of Spain, including the Canary Islands and Catalunya, on the grounds of cruelty.
Andalucia, in the south, is a different story and there are bullrings in some 70 Spanish towns, including Seville and Ronda. The spectacle is highly ritualistic, with the top matadors regarded as heroes, but the bull is always killed.
While you may not want to watch a bullfight, you can visit the various bullrings and the museums often attached to them. La Plaza de Toros in Seville is considered the most important arena in Spain and in April, during the big city fair, hosts the largest bullfighting festival in the world. The arena itself is ornate and dramatic, in the baroque style, and was built in 1762.
Las Fallas
Las Fallas
The extraordinary fallas celebrations in Valencia take place for the first 19 days of March. During this period, elaborate statues made of wood and papier mache are erected all over the city, their destiny to be reduced to ashes on the Nit del Foc, the night of fire.
The Fallas originated from a medieval tradition of carpenters burning bits of old furniture to celebrate the arrival of spring and the day of St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpentry. Rags and other items would be added to the fires, giving the wooden structures a human look. Today, these fallas, as they’re known, are works of art, often depicting political figures or celebrities, with a strong sense of satire.
There are more than 400 communities across the city, also called fallas, who design and build the figures, a process which takes the whole year. The festival starts at the end of February with the Crida, the public proclamation that kicks off the fun, with giant fallas, or clusters of statues, appearing in streets and squares across the city. Smaller figures, called ninots, are grouped around the central “character”, each ensemble telling a story.
Mascletá
Every day, in the town hall square, the Mascletá, a deafening barrage of fireworks, is set off at 2 pm. Then, on March 17 and 18, the Ofrenda de Flores takes place—the offering of flowers. Thousands of people parade through the streets in traditional costume, offering flowers to a 300-foot tall statue of the Our Lady of the Forsaken in Plaza de la Virgen.
The celebrations peak on the night of March 18, the Night of Fire. A massive fireworks display is set off from the Turia Gardens. Then, throughout the night, La Cremà, the ritual burning of all the fallas, lights up the sky.
Even if you can’t be in the city for the Fallas festival, it’s worth visiting the Fallas Museum to learn about how the figures are created and to admire some of the ninots. Every year, two are selected to survive the fires and many of them are on display here.
Read: Spain in March
Christmas and Three Kings’ Day
Tenerife, Canary Islands
Christmas in Spain continues until January 6, Three Kings’ Day, or Día de los Reyes Magos. The buildup to the big event, the night of December 24, starts at the end of November, with Advent markets and elaborate Christmas light displays in every town.
On December 24, families gather to eat traditional Christmas foods, from Iberico ham to roast meat, fish, and stuffed turkey, followed by marzipan, turron, a nougat-like sweet treat, and Epiphany cake.
New Year’s Eve grapes
New Year’s Eve involves a special tradition. Spaniards eat 12 grapes, one for each chime, as the Puerta del Sol clock in Madrid strikes midnight, seeing out the old year and ushering the new one in.
On January 5, parades and processions celebrate the arrival of the three kings, Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, who that night deliver gifts to children who have been well behaved through the year. January 6 is therefore a big day for Spanish children, with a frenzy of unwrapping.
Soccer
Camp Nou, Barcelona
Soccer, or football as it’s called in Europe, is a national passion, deeply embedded in Spanish culture. If you’re in Barcelona and FC Barcelona, or Barça, are playing Real Madrid in a meeting of the country’s two giants, you’ll know about it. Car horns are tooted, there are cheers and groans emanating from every bar, and the beautiful Spanish city has an almost festival vibe.
Big matches are preceded by fans gathering in local cafés and bars. These match days are as much about family, friendship, regional identity, and loyalty to your team as about the game itself. After a match, depending on the result, bars are full of fans enjoying jubilant celebration or sorrowful commiseration.
Feel a little of the magic yourself with a tour of the massive Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona. You’ll see the players’ changing rooms, the press area, the tunnel that leads out onto the pitch, and the high-tech, interactive museum.
Carnival
Carnival headdress
During the days leading up to Lent, towns and cities in Spain erupt in celebration of Carnival, with costume parades, floats, street parties, live music, and feasting. A Carnival Queen is chosen and in some places, a Carnival Drag Queen as well.
One of the best places to experience this high-octane festival is Santa Cruz, Tenerife, which has one of the biggest celebrations in the world after that of Rio de Janeiro.
On Ash Wednesday, there’s another curious ritual, the Burial of the Sardine, or Entierro de la Sardina. A giant sardine, made of papier maché, is paraded through the streets, followed by “mourners”, or people dressed as wailing widows. The sardine symbolizes the end of this period of gluttony and decadence and a new era of abstinence as Lent begins.
Siesta
Siesta
Spain is known for its siesta. The idea of taking a three or four hour break to avoid the heat of the day most likely dates back to a time when most people had manual jobs. But siesta still continues as a tradition in Spain, especially in the hotter south. Restaurants and bars stay open, for obvious reasons, but many shops, especially smaller shops, will close at 2pm and reopen at 5pm.
If you’re traveling in Spain in summer, it’s a good idea to take a siesta yourself. Time sightseeing for early in the morning and spend the hottest hours over a long lunch, or in the shade of an umbrella on the beach. Locals will typically emerge later in the day for strolling, aperitifs, and tapas.
Read: Best Things to Do in Spain
Tapas
Tapas
There are various theories as to the origin of tapas, but one of the most popular is that “tapa” means “cover”, and bartenders in Andalucia would cover their customers’ drinks with small plates holding snacks to keep the flies out. Another theory is that offering salty snacks like dried ham, olives, and cheese would make customers thirstier and more inclined to buy another drink.
Either way, tapas are an important part of Spanish culinary culture. Sometimes they’re offered free with a round of drinks. Or they appear on a restaurant menu as small plates to share before the main course.
There’s no end of tapas to try but some of the best-known dishes are patatas bravas, or spicy potatoes; gambas al ajillo, shrimps sizzling in garlic oil; and croquetas, croquettes made from bechamel and Iberian ham, coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried.
Castells
Castells
The practice of creating castells, or human towers, is believed to have originated from a Valencian dance some 200 years ago. Today, it’s passed down through the generations and practiced by amateur groups of castellers. You can see this unusual art form all over Catalonia and in the Balearic Islands, usually in the town hall square of any town or city.
The towers are built by people standing on the shoulders of one another in layers of up to 10 humans high. Those at the top of the tower are lightweight children and a tower is considered complete when the final child has reached the top and raised their hands. Each group has its own costume, with individuals wearing a cummerbund that serves to protect the back and as hand holds for castellers climbing the tower.
The construction of the tower is accompanied by traditional melodies played on a gralla, a wind instrument, setting a rhythm for this graceful act.
You’ll see castells at any festival in Catalonia. There are also regular demonstrations in Barcelona, mainly throughout the summer at locations all over the city.
Flamenco
Flamenco
The sultry flamenco dance originates from the Roma communities of Andalucia, although you will see it performed throughout Spain. Flamenco fuses music, dance, emotion, and song, and the top dancers train for years. Female dancers wear elaborate ruffled dresses and special shoes with nails in the toe and heel for setting the rhythm of the dance.
Flamenco has four constituents: the guitar, the rhythm, which is created by castanets or clapping, the song, and the dance itself. It’s performed in theaters called tablaos, which you’ll find all over Seville and in many other cities.
You can learn more about flamenco at the Museo de Arte Flamenco in Malaga or the Museo del Baile Flamenco in Seville. Or take your interest further with a short class in Seville to master the basic steps.
San Juan
San Juan
Celebrating the eve of San Juan, June 23, is one of the most joyful traditions in Spain, taking place across the country to commemorate both midsummer and the saint’s day of St. John the Baptist with bonfires, beach parties, and some unusual pagan rituals.
In Catalonia, you’ll see fireworks displays and beach bonfires; jumping over a bonfire is said to purify mind and body and the bonfires themselves are supposed to ward off evil spirits. In Malaga, people write statements on pieces of paper; perhaps a wish, or a goodbye to something they want to get over, and burn them. People will stay on the beaches all night long, partying with friends and swimming in the sea at midnight.
In Mallorca, hooded “devils” chase people through the Parc de la Mar by the cathedral to the banging of drums before everybody heads to the beach. Residents of the Canary Islands, meanwhile, decorate their doors and windows with laurel branches to ward off evil.
Mallorca
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