Aragon Guide

Popular festivals or fiestas in Aragon go beyond the commonplace. Aragon folklore has known how to keep alive its deep roots in the ancestral world of the legendary and primitive. In fact, the actual religious feast days such us Saint John, the Carnival or the Corpus are edified intelligently over Pre-Christian and Pagan rites established by the rhythms of ancient life, ruled by the sun cycles, the seasons and the harvests. Among the political or religious fiestas, such as the Day of Aragon on the 23rd of April (Saint George), and the Easter Week processions, there are endless amount of festivities with deep folklore. In any village or town of Aragon, we can see very popular festive events. We have highlighted some of the best ones that preserve the most singular peculiarities and living traditions.

Exaltation of the Anso Dress - Date: Last Sunday in August. Anso becomes living museum for its traditional dress. It begins with a procession at midday, followed by mass and passacaglia through the village, when the visitors can enjoy the beauty of the traditional Anso dress. In the afternoon there is a popular fiesta. There ...

Jaca's Folk Festival of the Pyrenees - Date: End of July and beginning of August, Sunday being the last day; odd years in Jaca and even years in Oloron (France). Fiesta of tourist interest. Folk groups from all over the world exhibit their dances and traditions in the Congress Palace. But the real fiesta is in the street, with ...

Yebra de Basa's Procession of St. Orosia - Date: 25 June. This is a reminder of the flight, of the martyr to the place where the hermitage was raised. The procession leaves in the early hours of the morning carrying her skull in a 15th century silver bust. They climb the hill stopping to dance along the beautiful route of rock ...

Ainsa's La Morisma - Date: The Sunday closest to the 14 September. (Bi-annual celebration on odd years). This commemorates the appearance of the Holy Cross on a tree, as can be seen on the shield of Aragon, and which was the signal that encouraged the Aragonese trops’e town. The legendary drama of La Morisma, ...

Bielsa's Carnival - Date: During carnival time, for 3 days. An anthropological phenomenon with great popular tradition and symbolism. Its origins are lost in time. The trangas are young men wearing coloured skirts and shirts, with their heads and shoulders covered by goats skins and with large horns, black faces ...

Graus's Mojiganga - Date: The Sunday closet to 14 September. Fiesta of tourist interest. The mojiganga is a grotesque group that goes round the town and finishes its activity in the Plaza Mayor (main square), with a dramatic popular performance carried out by the villagers, which is a satire of social life. It is ...

Huesca City's St. Lorenzo - Date: Between 9 and 15 August. According to tradition, St. Lorenzo was martyred on 10 August of the year 258. In his memory, the town is decked out with the white and green of the local groups. Tradition and amusement, mingle together: musical performances, dances and cultural events. Among the ...

Other Fiestas of Interest in the Aragonese Pyrenees - Ainsa-Sobrarbe. On 16 September, fiesta of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Ayerbe. At the end of the month of January the Conversion of St. Paul is celebrated with folk dances and pilgrimage to the Saint’s chapel. On 1 June, procession to the shrine of the Virgin of Casbas. Barbastro. ...

Zaragoza City's Fiestas del Pilar - Date: Around 12 October Fiesta of tourist interest. The devotion to the Virgin of the Pilar from the tradition that says that Mary miraculously visited the apostle James in Zaragoza. El Pilar lasts for nine days, with all kinds of acts: from the massively attended Pregon (opening speech) to the ...

Tarazona's Cipotegato - Date: On the feast day of St. Atilano, 27 August. The fiesta begins at midday, when the cipotegato, with harlequin dress, runs out of the town council and is showered with tomatoes. The cipotegato when the town corporation went to the town hall, - which used to be next to the market-, ...

Cetina's Contradanza - Date: During the feast day of St. Juan Lorenzo, from 18 to 21 May. An extremely original dance with Celtic music –the only one in Aragon- which commemorates the death of the Saint. It is a masked dance from pre-Christian times which preserves remains of old farming rites. The jumps of the ...

Daroca's Corporales - Date: The day of Corpus Christi, at the beginning of June. It is a procession in honour of the Sacred Corporals. Tradition says that in 1239 the Hosts turned into blood sticking to the corporals that surrounded them. They are kept, in the church of Santa Maria, in a gold relic donated by the ...

Other Fiestas of Interest in Zaragoza Province - Ainzon. On the eve of St. Anton, on 16 January, bonfires. The patron saint of the town is St. Sebastian, on 20 January. After the procession of the Saint they eat cakes in the wineries. The second Sunday in March, the day of the quitos, each boy invites a firl to accompany him all day and serves ...

Route of the Drum, Teruel - Date: Easter Week. Fiestas of tourist interest. They go through Albalate del Arazobispo, Alcaniz, Alcorisa, Andorra, Calanda, Hijar, La Puebla de Hijar, Samper de Calanda and Urrea de Gaen. In Hijar they are very severe, and black is the predominant colour in the tunics and terceroles (pleated ...

Albarracin's Mayos - At midnight on the 30th of April, the serenade goes round the steep streets of Albarracin and other villages in the region playing love-songs under balconies full of flowers. These are "the Mayos", a popular expression of exaltation of love and spring, which rises spontaneously from time ...

Teruel City's Fiestas del Angel - Date: The second Sunday in July, close to St. Cristobal. Dedicated to the Santo Angel (Holy Angel), the patron saint of the city, they commemorate the legendary foundation of Teruel by some Aragonese knights after taking the Moslem fortress, which a fighting bull led them to. The most popular ...

The Toro Embolado or Fire Bull - Date: from July to September The villages of Gudar and Javalambre celebrate their fiestas with the totemic night celebration of the “embolado” bull, which consist in placing a yoke with inflammable balls on the horns of the bull and letting it run free through the streets of the ...

Other Fiestas of Interest in Teruel - Alcala de la Selva. The 8 September is the Virgin of the Vega, there is a procesión to the shrine and different popular acts are held. Alcañiz. The patron saints’ feast days of Our lady of Pueyos and Santo Angel Custodio are held from 9 September onwards. The procession to ...

Zaragoza City's Crystal Rosary - The Church del Sagrado Corazon (of the Sacred Heart), located in San Pedro Nolasco Square has the Rosario de Cristal (meaning the Crystal Rosary or Glass Rosary). During the Pilar fiestas (Around 12 October) there is a large procession along the main streets downtown, where they display scenes of ...

Zaragoza City's Flower Offering - Some of the most important features in El Pilar Fiestas are the Ofrenda de Flores (Flower offering) to the virgin on the 12th of October, when an enormous cloak is made of the flowers; the massively attended mass of infants, on the same day at dawn. This offering of thousands of flowers from people ...