A fiesta is one of the most enjoyable ways people show their culture. Its popular feeling, its strong anthropological roots and its marked religious traits are the hallmarks of these public celebrations that take place in every town and village, no matter how small.
Castilla y León, profoundly rooted in Western civilisation, keeps these fiestas alive in a multicolour mosaic of religion led by patrons, saints and dedications. Alongside them is the pagan world, alive in the carnivals and outlandish characters of pre-Roman times. Bullfighting and traditional gastronomy are part and parcel of these fiestas.
In Castilla y León the Easter week religious celebrations are particularly important because they bring with them a simultaneous outpouring of popular joy and extraordinary open-air museums. Immense statues and colourful mass processions are the result.
The passing of the seasons, the harvests, the calendar of saints' days and the commemoration of historical events provide a range of cultural activities that seems to go from strength to strength as time goes by. Fiestas where the visitor is treated as one more piece in the puzzle, a trait that demonstrates the hospitality and openness of the people of Castilla y León.
