There is nothing Andalucians love more than to celebrate. There is always a fiesta taking place somewhere in the region. Here are just a few of them...

January 2 'Toma'commemorates the reconquest of Granada. Colourful processions.
February 1st - Festival of San Cecilio. Alhama de Granada
March (Easter Week) - Semana Santa. Spectacular processions everywhere (SEE BELOW)
April 25 -Atar el Santo (tie the Saint) in Loja.
3rd May - May Crosses. Everywhere filled with crosses adorned with flowers.
25th May - Granada. Outdoor dancing & cultural events.
June - Corpus Christi. Granada stages wonderful processions, street dancing & bullfighting.
Around August 15th - a week long fiesta in Albuñuelas - with marching bands, processions, parties and fireworks! Penultimate Sunday in August-Moors & Christians in the Alpujarran village of Bubion.
Last Sunday in September - Day of the Virgin - Granada. A wonderful procession winds through the streets.
September 29 - Romeria in Granada. Pilgrimage through the streets of the Albaicín (old quarter).
October 5 in the Alpujarra village of Cádiar, a wine fountain flows through the festivities!
December - Festivities take place throughout Spain to see out the old year and welcome in the new.

SEMANA SANTA

The biggest celebrations of the year fall in April particularly during Semana Santa or Holy Week. This is a visual feast - the greatest of those outbursts of emotion, culture, religious feeling and sheer spectacle which punctuate the Spanish calendar. During this week - Easter Week - all of the major statues depicting the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary are removed from the churches and carried on their heavy and ornate silver and golden palanques, smothered with flowers and incense, through the streets.

This is a spectacle in itself as it can take twenty or thirty men to bear the immense weight of just one of these massive teetering edifices. Every town and village has its processions (including Albuñuelas) but the celebrations in Granada are considered some of the finest. Good days to see the processions in Granada are -
Wednesday - Gypsy Procession
Thursday - Silent Procession
Saturday - Climax

Contact the local Granada tourist offices for routes and times: Corral de Carbon - Tel: +34 958 22 59 90
Plaza Mariana de Pineda 10 bajo Tel: +34 958 22 66 8