Festivals & Fiestas in Guardamar del Segura
Many holidays in Guardamar del Segura will brush upon one of the Guardamar festivals or other because the Spanish love to party. One of the wonderful things about Spain is the importance of community and family something that sometimes gets a little lost here in the UK.
There is rarely a month that goes by in Guardamar where there is not some excuse for a fiesta and the community all gets involved and they all turn out to enjoy the event with friends and family.
The Spanish are very patriotic and the importance of the history of Guardamar del Segura is what fuels many of the fiestas in Guardamar and this part of Spain in General.
New Year In Guardamar del Segura
A holiday in Guardamar for the New Year is a wonderful way to escape the typically grey and dreary UK winter. Once you walk through the streets you will be taken in by how wonderful it all seems. Families and friends gather in preparation for the new year with many people having barbecues outside their homes in the street.
You may not get the millions of pounds that the likes of London spend on their fireworks but the actual celebration of the new year is no less enjoyable, and the atmosphere in the town is buzzing. Both locals and visitors to Guardamar join in the festivities as they all come along to the celebrations with their bottle of wine and grapes.
The clock begins to strike to sound in a brand new year and as it does each person takes a sip of wine and eats a grape, 12 grapes in 12 seconds.
People often prepare by buying seedless grapes or by peeling and seeding them, it is also possible to buy tins with 12 in already prepared. It is a wonderful tradition and creates a real sense of fun. All this is then followed up by some very loud fireworks and fire crackers but the festivities continue to go on even after the fireworks have long since finished
Guardamar on New Years day is no less social, families and friends will gather on the beaches for barbecues and fun, some even have music and it is a perfect way to start the new year.
Guardamar Carnival
Everybody loves a carnival, the buzz in the streets, the party atmosphere, the pomp, the colours and the feeling of being part of something exciting. If you feel the same way then the Guardamar Carnival should tick many of the right boxes.
Guardamar del Segura holds it's carnival in February and is the first major festival to come to the streets of Guardamar. Just as you are recovering from Christmas and the New Year, when all your resolutions are in place and you are missing the excitement along comes Guardamar Carnival. This is a wonderful celebration to wake up the town as it leaves the winter in it's dust and heads towards the blazing summer.
This is a marvellously colourful event in the Guardamar town calendar with music and parades, masks and fancy dress. The best masks and fancy dress costumes win prizes in competitions and all this is followed up by a dance.
And the fun is not just limited to the adults either, there is a carnival especially for the children where they can get their very own awards for the best costumes. At the end of the carnival the children all receive hot chocolate and some traditional Spanish cake called 'La Mona'.
If you are looking for a winter holiday in Guardamar it may be worth checking with the tourist board for the dates of the Guardamar Carnival so that you can get involved in the fun. We have some fantastic rates for February; if you want to stay in the our Guardamar apartment you can do so from as little as £135 per week for winter holidays of 4 weeks or more.
Easter in Guardamar del Segura
The holy week is an important event in the diary for Guardamar del Segura and whilst it is not alone in this, the townsfolk of Guardamar celebrate it in style with processions, pageants and fantastically extravagant statues and religious images the sort of style that you would expect from this region of Spain.
The processions are all spectacular and are led by the different brotherhoods in the region and the statues and religious images gain their influences from both the Valencian and Murcian culture.
Without a doubt though, the most amazing part of the celebrations for holy week are the pageants. These are re-enacted by the townsfolk and represent important moments in the passion of Christ. These include the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; the Taking of Jesus on Holy Monday; Pilate Washing his Hands on Holy Tuesday and the Meeting with Veronica on the morning of Good Friday.
As in other parts of the former Kingdom of Aragon, Easter Monday is the main celebration in Guardamar del Segura. Local people will organise meals for all to enjoy in the national park of Alfonso XIII and people will come along to enjoy the "Canal de Tio Batiste" where they can sing traditional Spanish songs and enjoy the typical cake known as La Mona. It is a fun day where people play games and enjoy each others company.
If you are considering an Easter holiday in Spain then the Sunrise Apartment in Guardamar makes the perfect location to enjoy your holiday. You get to benefit from the wonderful celebrations put on by the town and additionally get to enjoy the fabulous beaches, walks and restaurants that Guardamar can offer you.
The Guardamar Bonfires Festival
If you love Spanish fiestas and festivals then the time to take a holiday in Guardamar could be for the festivities of the Bonfires festival. This is not just a single festival but a group of festivals that continue from the end of may until around the 24th of June.
As is the tradition in this part of Spain, the Bonfires festivities are to celebrate the Summer Solstice and they consist of a manner of wonderful things to be enjoyed by both locals and tourists alike. The Bonfires include satirical monuments which are build by local people to poke fun out of both events and people that have featured in the news over the last year.
This near month long of festivities includes open air dances and celebrations, beauty contests, parades and many more things to make this a special time of the year; if you have never experienced it and would like to then consider renting our apartment in Guardamar for a week or two during this period to enjoy the festivities.
The most spectacular part of the Bonfires festival are the last two nights beginning with the Magical "Night of St. John" on the 23rd June where witches and muses dance the enigmatic "Fire Dance" and finishing with the bonfires when the satirical monuments are burned and the fireworks lit.
The Moors & Christians Festival in Guardamar
When it comes to fiestas and festivals in Guardamar they don't get much more important in the eyes of the locals than the Moors and Christians festival. This festival is one of Guardamar del Segura's most popular events and is held in honour of St. James.
The Moors and Christians festival is held during the second week of July and attracts hoards of people to the streets all wanting to celebrate the stories about the re-conquest of Spain from the Moors by the Christians.
The events include amongst many others, the opening speech and the legend of the "Encatà" this is the story of when the "Lady of Guardamar" was proclaimed and crowned. It is a tale of a brave warrior who has to win a battle against the forces of evil in order to release a young girl from a spell under which she has befallen.
The celebrations include dancing in the Barraca Popular and on a variety of other dance floors set up by the different festival groups. The parades all begin with the landing of the Moors on the Guardamar beaches and it is without doubt the most spectacular event of the festival. When all the parades are done the main focus of the festival is the fire and music.
The Guardamar Festival for the Virgin of Fatima
The Virgin of Fatima festival in Guardamar del Segura is a relatively new one with its roots beginning in the 1950s when the chapel dedicated to this virgin was built in Campo de Guardamar.
Every weekend during the month of September the festival in the Campo celebrates the patron saint of the Virgin of Fatima. This coincides with the traditional harvest festival.
There is much food and many festivities these days and celebrations include competitions for the best Paella. additionally there are other competitions and events and a multi-coloured parade.
On saints day there is a procession and a floral offering along with an open air mass.
The Festival of Our Lady of the Rosary in Guardamar del Segura
Our Lady Of The Rosary is important to Guardamar del Segura because she is the patron saint. The statue is the oldest in the parish of San Jaume and is much revered. It is believed that the statue was sculpted in the early 17th century (between the Renaissance and Baroque periods) probably around the year 1610 as this was when the Brotherhood of the Rosary was formed.
Floral offerings which are made to the image of the Lady of the Rosary along with traditional dances take place in front of the church and this is what begins this deeply religious festival in Guardamar.
Before dawn on the morning of the 7th of October a group called the "Auroros" sing the Dawn Rosary along the streets of Guardamar del Segura, this is the start of the main day of celebrations for this Saint.
In the afternoon of the same day is a procession this concludes at Guardamar castle in the evening with a spectacular firework display.
Christmas in Guardamar
Christmas is no less important in Guardamar than it is in the UK, and the celebrations that take place in this region pretty much echo those going on around other towns and cities of the Costa Blanca and all over Spain.
All throughout December there are special events that are held for everybody but especially for the local children. It all starts with the Christmas speech and the inauguration of the municipal Nativity scene, this amongst other things includes sports and games plus magic tricks along of course with the inevitable pageants.
The arrival of the giant "Manjabollos" in the town on the 23rd of December is the most important event of Christmas in Guardamar. He parades through the town where he is accompanied by the local children all dancing to the sounds of various traditional Spanish instruments.
The year finally comes to an end on New Years Eve with a huge party in the Plaça de la Contitució in front of the town hall. On the 5th of January, accompanied by well-known characters from children's stories, the three kings arrive from the orient.
A Christmas holiday in Guardamar del Segura makes a welcome break from the traditional British winter holiday and if you have no commitments in the UK why not take a long winter holiday in Guardamar staying in the Sunrise Apartment.