Experience Europe’s Top Carnival Event – The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
When and Where is the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife?
The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife takes place in the capital city of Tenerife, Santa Cruz. This Spanish island is the largest in the Canaries archipelago and is situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa. Santa Cruz de Tenerife itself is located in the northeast of the island and as well as being the capital it’s the largest city of Tenerife.
As with many other carnivals around the world, the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife ties in with the dates of the religious calendar, so you can calculate the dates of the carnival for future years by knowing when Easter, and in particular Ash Wednesday, falls. This is usually in February but it can vary!
The great thing about the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is that it takes place over such a long period. You can come to Tenerife and enjoy the festivities for up to 3 weeks, during which time there’s always something happening. The main festival celebrations happen in the week leading up to Ash Wednesday, so in 2010 it begins on Friday 12 February and ends on Wednesday 17 February.
Why not combine a visit to the Tenerife Carnival with some additional sightseeing? Tenerife has a mild climate all year round so especially on the south side of the island you may find it’s even warm enough for swimming and enjoying the beach. If Mount Teide isn’t too clad in snow, take a trip up this giant mountain, the highest in Tenerife and the whole of Spain.
Being a popular tourist destination (about 5 million visitors come to Tenerife each year!) Santa Cruz de Tenerife is well geared to providing accommodation and services to people who come to enjoy the Carnival. There are many hotels and other such accommodation available in the city itself, or if you can’t find anything suitable you could always stay in one of the other cities or resorts on Tenerife.
Although the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the largest and most spectacular there are actually carnivals taking place in every town in Tenerife, from large to small. You could combine a visit to the main Tenerife Carnival with one or more of these other carnivals to get a much broader experience!
What is the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife?
With the fantastic reputation for partying, letting loose and generally having a good time it’s easy to forget that the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, or most other carnivals for that matter, are actually religious events. The dates for the carnival and the traditions behind the carnival are set based on the religious calendar. You can read more about these traditions below under A History of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
For most of the visitors to the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife this isn’t a religious event though, it’s an opportunity to have a seriously good time and to enjoy the vibrant party atmosphere! The Carnival is full of people who want to let loose from their ordinary everyday lives and enjoy dressing up in outlandish costumes, cross-dressing, dancing, and feasting.
The festivities begin weeks before Ash Wednesday, and in fact the preparations for the Carnival take months, but the main events begin on the Friday before Ash Wednesday with a huge and colourful Opening Parade. Amazing floats decorated with over the top lights and displays make their way through the streets, all aiming to win the prize for being the best dressed float! The competition is certainly tough!
The parade ends with a huge fireworks display followed by dancing until dawn, though you don’t have to stay up all night! Over the next few days and nights there are numerous competitions and many performances by live bands and orchestras, plus of course more dancing that always goes on well into the night!
The end of all the madness of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife comes on Ash Wednesday with the rather bizarre Burial of the Sardine Parade! Spectators watch on as a huge rendition of a sardine travels past on the journey towards its burial. This parade is symbolic of the ending of the spirit of the carnival and a farewell to flesh.
Although this is technically the end of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife there’s still several more days of dancing and performances to enjoy, culminating with a grand finale on the Sunday in which there are more processions and fireworks.
A History of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Although it’s only in more recent decades that the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has become such a popular event with visitors from around the world, the carnival itself has been celebrated by locals for hundreds of years.
It’s been said that this carnival has its origins with the first European settlers on the island, as far back as 1605, though the first written records of a similar festival date from the latter 1700’s. Carnivals have been taking place here regularly since at least the late 1800’s and even throughout the dictatorship years ways were found to celebrate.
As with other large carnivals around the world the Tenerife Carnival has a reputation for being outlandish and a lot of fun. It’s celebrated and enjoyed by visitors who aren’t religious even though the dates that the carnival takes place are calculated around the religious calendar. So what is the religious significance?
The origin of the word ‘carnival’ means ‘farewell to meat’, or ‘to remove meat’ because Lent is a time in which meats, and fatty and rich foods should not be consumed. The Carnival was invented as a way to get together with friends and neighbours and have a massive feast in which all these disallowed foods were consumed so that they were used up before Lent. The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has evolved into more than simply a festival in which the community eats lots though, as visitors to this popular event will find out!
Visiting the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Visitors who can’t make it to the next Tenerife Carnival in 2010 will be pleased to hear that this is an annual event, and will take place every year around the week before Ash Wednesday. Another piece of good news is that attending the carnival is free for everyone, so you can watch the parades and fireworks without having to buy a ticket. More specific events, such as band and orchestra performances, do sometimes have an entrance fee so if there’s something you want to attend check beforehand as to whether you’ll need to buy a ticket in advance. Check the Official Website of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for further information nearer the time.