After more than 20 years, posts here will now only be occasional ( |
| Castañada |
Delicious roasted chestnuts, succulent pinchos and sizzling sardines are just some of the street food on offer in Tenerife's Puerto de la Cruz as part of its Fiesta de San Andrés on the eve of Saint Andrew's Day each year on November 29th. In Puerto de la Cruz, the events are popularly known as the La Fiesta del Cacharro - Festival of Pots (although cacharro translates to scrap metal) or Chestnuts. Kids drag strings of tin cans, metal pots and pans around the streets to make as much noise as possible (well, more than usual anyway). The "Castañada" (chestnut feast) is held in the Plaza del Charco square itself.
But quite why Scotland's Patron Saint is celebrated on the island (or indeed why the flag of Tenerife is the same as the Scottish flag with a white saltire (or St Andrew's Cross) over a blue field), with Icod de los Vinos' kamikaze "tablas" or this noisy custom, seems to be one of those mysteries lost in the annals of history. Some say it was started as a way to drive away a plague of locusts, others attribute it to the cleaning of the barrels with salt water to remove the acid build up. To do this, in olden times, they would roll the barrels down to the sea and, of course, the metal bands would make quite a racket on the cobbled streets. Despite appearances, which one might derive from the date and naming, the church assures us that these fiestas are not held to honour the Saint. The mere seasonal coincidences with the Saint's day, the time the new wine is ready and the harvest of the chestnuts - and the general habit of tacking celebrations onto the nearest Catholic feast - seem to be the simple reasons for these customs.
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| Arrastre de las tablas |
Meanwhile in Icod de los Vinos, the principal events of the fiesta, starting with the symbolic uncorking of the first bottle from the annual vintage and the tasting of the first wines of the year from the Ycoden-Daute-Isora region, usually take place at the Casa de los Cáceres in the Plaza de la Pila from 8.00 p.m. The Arrastre de las tablas, will be hurtling down the streets; El Plano, San Antonio, Hércules, El Salto, El Sol, Los Coches, San Andrés and others, throughout the day & night.
Photos by Jack Montgomery
