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Overview
Costa Blanca has lively festivals. Thousands of people are involved for
the festivals that are held during the year in Costa Blanca.
People participate the festivals dressed in lavish costumes and parades,
posturing and swaggering bravado, dances, swashbuckling displays and
mock battles take place together with the sound of raucous music, the
thunderous din of arquebuses and acrid smell of gunpowder.
The best-known
fiesta of that tradition is the
Alicante, which is held
in April
annually.
It stands for the bloodless struggle between two opposing bands;
the Moors who were expelled from Spain after seven centuries of
occupation and the Christians who extended their territory and
customs.
Each town has its unique acts for the fiesta such as the forces
arrive by sea in Villajoyosa; the effigy of Mohammed is borne
aloft as a standard in Biar, and the entire neighborhood takes
part in Alicante’s San Blas Quarter. |
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The popular fiesta of the
Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) is the Alicante region’s
celebration par excellence.
In summer,
Alicante’s streets fill with artistically contrived cardboard
figures for the St. John’s Day in the company of fireworks.
The bonfires, known as las Hogueras shows the life of the city
while its streets become a permanent source of entertainment
with barracas (makeshift booths), parades and lively
processions.
The Fallas Festival of Valencia in March also celebrated in
Denia and
Benidorm.
Festivities reach a peak with the staging of the Misteri in the
city of Elche on the eve and day of 15th August in
Alicante. |
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Religious traditions are
also remarkable in the Easter Week processions held in Orihuela and
Crevillente, the Passion Play produced in Callosa de Segura and
Altea,
and the re-enactment of the story of the Three Magi in Cañada.
Also the spectacle known as toros a la mar or bous a la mar which means
bulls by the sea that is held on Denia is another well known fiesta in
Costa Blanca. |
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