ALICANTE HOGUERAS

Fiestas are all part of the local culture in Spain!  Las Hogueras de San Juan (Bonfires of St John) coincides with the Summer solstice.

Beginning on 19th June and culminating on 24th June, enormous cardboard, wood and paper maché figures are erected all around the city centre, (each one has statues for the adults and a separate one for the children).

The lead up to the 24th June is marked by colourful parades, flower offerings, bull fighting festivals, music concerts, parades, beauty contests, all night street partying and daily choruses of the deafening mascletás (firecrackers)!

Next to many of the hogueras is an open-air cafe with tables and music.

These cafes are called barracas, and the local people belonging to one barraca or another contribute money all year round to finance the food, drink and music.

After the evening dinner, live bands start to play in the barracas, and dancing goes on all night! 

At midnight, on the last night of fiestas, an enormous firework is let off from the top of the Santa Barbara castle and lights up the city, signalling the lighting of the hogueras - the first one being in the Town Hall square.

From then on, and according to a timetable set by Alicante's bomberos (firemen), the statues are burnt one by one - to much cheering. 

Set alight by firecrackers, they burn to loud cheers and then, according to local customs, the fireman are taunted with insults and then screams of "Agua, Agua" (water, water!) as one of the highlights of the evening is when the firemen turn the hoses on the crowds!

Once all the hogueras are burnt, the party then continues all night until sunrise with drinking and dancing in the streets!

For 5 nights after the San Juan Hogueras fiestas have finished, firework displays are held on the main Postiguet Beach in Alicante.   Thousands of people gather on the beach at 11.30pm, to sit on the sand and watch the wonderful displays which begin every night at midnight.

The Hogueras, as with all fiestas in Spain, with their noise, atmosphere and colour is something not to be missed - for ALL the family!

SEMANA SANTA (EASTER HOLY WEEK)

Beginning on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) and ending with Lunes de Pascua (Easter Monday), all over Spain processions take place in the streets carrying religious icons and symbols. Here are a few pictures taken in nearby Elche at the Domingo de Ramos with the palms and olive trees being carried through the streets.  Elche produces over 100,000 white palms which are distributed all over Spain.