Fiestas and Carnivals

The Spanish don't need much of a reason to have a party and/or set off some fireworks and there's hardly a month goes by during the year when there isn't a celebration of some kind or another going on.
Here are some of the main public holidays and celebrations, although there are others.

January 5th – Festividad de Los Reyes Magos (The Festival of the 3 Kings arrival in Bethlehem ) Celebrated in most towns and cities across the whole of Spain .

February – Los Alcazares, along with most of the towns on the Mar Menor has it's Annual Carnival. The most historically spectacular Carnival in the Murcia Region take place an hour down the coast in the town of Aguilas , where the whole town comes out to celebrate and to choose their Carnival Queen.

March 24 th – 27 th. The Tamborada Festival in the Murcian towns of Moratalla and Mula celebrates the Passion of the Christ with the pounding of a thousand drums over three crazy days in March.

Easter – Semana Santa (Saints week or Holy Week)

Celebrated across the whole of Spain , but easily the biggest Semana Santa celebrations in the region are in the Capital Murcia. Smaller, but no less colourful festivities take place in nearby Cartagena and San Pedro del Pinatar.

April - The Burial of the Sardine , the climax of the Spring festivities, is Murcia 's wackiest night of the year. On the first Saturday in April, and looking like a cross between Rio's famous carnival and ‘It's a Knockout' a crazy cavalcade of giants and big-heads, torch-bearers and entertainers, demons and Brazilian samba groups escort a fleet of some twenty floats, which will throw hundreds of thousands of euros worth of toys and gifts into the crowd in the space of just a few hours.

Over the previous days, there are marches through the streets with brass bands and on the night of the eve of the Burial, the Testament of Doña Sardina (Ms Sardine) is read from the balcony of the Town Hall. The fiesta ends in the early hours of the morning, when, a papier-mâché effigy of the Lenten sardine is burnt in the Plano de San Francisco amid public rejoicing.

May – La Manga Fiesta incorporating the La Manga Ladies Windsurfing Championships.

1st – 5th May. The Festival of the Holy Cross in Caravaca de la Cruz includes the famous ‘ Race of the Wine Horses' where the horses used in the Vineyards are raced through the streets to the Castle at the top of the town.

July – The San Javier Music Festival runs throughout the whole of July featuring leading Jazz & Blues artists, but there are some rock, pop & folk acts appearing as well from time to time.

The Festividad de la Virgin del Carmen (The Festival of the Virgin Madonna of the Sea) includes street processions, fireworks and the symbolic burning of an artificial castle as well as a procession of boats which scatter flowers on the sea. Celebrations of this festival take place on the 16 th in Los Alcazares, Santiago de la Ribera, Lo Pagan, Cabo de Palos and Cartagena and again on the 25 th in Santiago de la Ribera and Cartagena .

August – A month-long International Festival of Theatre, Music & Dance takes place in San Javier.

A Flamenco Festival takes place in the former mining town of La Union .

There is a folklore festival in Cartagena and there is week long Festival of La Huerta (The Market Garden) in Los Alcazares.

September – In Cartagena you can watch colourful mock battles in the street re-enacting the struggle between the Carthaginians and the Romans .

October – From 8 th to 13 th October, Los Alcazares has a week long celebration of the town's municipal autonomy, during which there are fireworks displays, processions, the Mar Menor Surfari Windsurfing competition and the ‘Caldero' Festival where the local fisherman light fires on the beach and cook their catch in hanging cauldrons for the consumption of the public.

November – Cartagena Jazz Festival takes place.

December – on the 3 rd December there is the Fiesta de San Francisco de San Javier (Saint Francis of San Javier) during which there are sports, games, exhibitions and concerts.