As every year, on the eve - 29th November - of San Andrés (St. Andrew's Day, which is on 30th November), Tenerife - which shares the St Andrew's Cross or Saltire as it's flag with Scotland - celebrates the event in its own inimitable style. As much has been written about these events before, I won't reiterate all the detail, but in Icod de los Vinos, you really should see the The Arrastre de las Tablas, which Jack Montgomery describes, "this involves local lads and girls sitting on wooden and metal sleds and launching themselves down nose-bleed steep streets". The Safety Elf will have been banned from the town for a couple of days, while this happens.
Meanwhile on the evening of 29th November, in Puerto de la Cruz' central Plaza del Charco, you might prefer to watch, and certainly won't be able to avoid hearing, the fiesta del cacharro y la castaña (the pot and the chestnut); "children dragging metal objects of all sizes through the streets to emulate wine barrels being dragged over the cobbles", whilst eating a poke of castañas (chestnuts).
This weekend, on Sunday, 22nd November, a commemoration of the 106th anniversary of the eruption of the Chinyero volcano - now part of the Reserva natural especial del Chinyero (Chinyero natural special reserve) - is being held. A committee of parishioners from the village of Tamaimo, along with the Santiago del Teide Town Hall organise this commemoration each year.
The last eruption of the Chinyero volcano in the municipality of Santiago del Teide, ran from 18th to 28th November 1909.
The event will begin at 13:00 with the traditional memorial Mass officiated by pastor Anatael Medina, followed by a procession of the image of Santa Ana, then a staging of the eruption, with a shared lunch for all participants to terminate.
Does it get any better than this combination? This weekend on both Saturday and Sunday, 14th and 15th November, the X Feria de Tapa y Saldo (10th Tapas and Bargain Fair) takes place at the Mercadillo del Agricultor, el Vino y la Artesanía (Agricultural, Wine and Crafts Market) in La Matanza de Acentejo. The fair is open from 9am to 4pm on both days and entrance is free. The tapas are an amazing bargain themselves at just €1 each and a glass of the local wine is just 50 cents!
The Canarian government has fixed the calendar of public holidays for 2016:
1 January (Año Nuevo/New Year’s Day)
6 January (Epifanía del Señor/Epihany)
2 February (Tenerife’s “island day” for patron saint Virgen de la Candelaria)
24 March (Jueves Santo/Easter Thursday)
25 March (Viernes Santo/Easter Friday)
2 May (Monday in lieu of Fiesta del Trabajo/Workers’ Day)
30 May (Día de Canarias/Canaries Day)
15 August (Asunción de la Virgen/Assumption)
12 October (Fiesta Nacional de España/Spain Day)
1 November (Todos los Santos/All Saints Day)
6 December (Día de la Constitución Española/Constitution Day)
8 December (Inmaculada Concepción/Immaculate Conception)
26 December (Monday in leiu of Christmas Day, which falls on a Sunday.)
Ten of those are "fixed" National Fiestas, two are decided at the the level of the whole Canary Islands, then each island also has an additional day of it’s own, which in Tenerife’s case is 2 February (Candlemass – the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
a.k.a. Feast of the Purification of the Virgin) for the island’s patron
saint’s day, the Virgen de la Candelaria, bringing the total number of public
holidays in 2016 to 13.
Then, in addition to this, each municipality has a further 2 local days.
The place to go this weekend is the Bargain fair EXPOSALDO 2015 currently taking place at the Recinto Ferial in Santa Cruz (Avenida de la Constitución, 12, Santa Cruz de Tenerife). The Exposaldo fair is dedicated to the sale of items in liquidation, offers and ends of lines. It's on from 5th to 9th November, 11 am to 9 pm daily, with 120 companies, including some well-known brands. Entrance is just €1 (children under 10 accompanied by an adult and the over 65’s go FREE).
