Festivals and Celebrations

** FEBRUARY **
Miranda del Castañar and La Alberca celebrate Las Calendas on 2nd February and Las Águedas and the Día de las Mayordomas on the 5th. Carnival festivities, which have no fixed yearly date, are held in Ciudad Rodrigo.

** MARCH AND APRIL **
Depending on the dates on which Easter falls in these months, Holy Week celebrations are held in all the towns and villages of the province. Salamanca celebrates Lunes de Aguas, commemorating the return of the Ladies of easy virtue, banished from the city during Lent by order of Philip II.

** JUNE **
12th June is the feast day of St. John of Sahagún, Salamanca's patron saint, a four-day holiday period of continuous festivities and entertainment. The 29th marks the Fiestas of St. Peter and St. Paul almost everywhere throughout the province.

** JULY AND AUGUST **
25th July in Candelario heralds the Fiestas of St. James the Apostle (Santiago Apóstol), celebrated with novilladas, bullfights featuring 2 to 3-year old bullocks and novice fighters, and encierros, the running of the bulls through the village streets; La Alberca celebrates the 15th and 16th August with La Ofrenda y loa de Nuestra Señora, a traditional mystery play in which the devil descends amidst rockets and smoke.



** SEPTEMBER **
Pilgrimage outing in traditional Salamancan charro peasant dress on 8th September to the Peña de Francia Shrine; from the 8th-21st, fiestas in honour of the Virgen de la Vega (Virgin of the Valley) and St. Matthew in Salamanca.

** OCTOBER **
Feast of St. Teresa in Alba de Tormes on 15th October.