The festivities have to be understood as a break with the monotony of the daily affairs, a time of joy and delight when the most rooted customs and traditions come back to service them around, in most cases, a religious or sacred sphere.

The festive celebrations are also symbols of the annual cycle, and they were taken by our ancestors to establish different agricultural stages, farming and transmitted from generation to generation, without forgetting the anthropological and ethnographic ideas they hold. These are also times when the families, neighbours and people from different regions meet about a sacred central sign such as the Cross, the Saints and other Christian symbols which constitute the reason to celebrate the feasts.

Los Realejos, stands out among other towns of Tenerife because of the large number of festivities which take place all over the year, about one hundred, many of them have originated thanks to the enthusiasm of the people while others remain unchangeable to the passing of time have lasted more than four centuries.

The festive calendar starts at the same time than the beginning of the new year. It is outstanding the festivity of the Cross every third of May which is a sample of the traditional culture, the fruit arch about the saint patron San Pedro, the procession of Our Lady of el Carmen in Puerto de la Cruz dedicated to the seamen, or the solemnity of Easter.

Among these celebrations we find out remarkable traditional aspects related to the feasts of the fireworks which are always present in all the popular festive affairs, the paper bowers and the forest branches in squares and roads, the flags and ornaments in the fronts and roofs of the houses, the feast committees, the renewal of the committee, the rivalry or “piques”, the potato foods or the huge amount of meals which are enjoyed by local people and visitors. It is the behaviour of the people which has made the festive calendar of Los Realejos appealing.

Their inhabitants work hard to improve every year respect to the last festivity and to reach a greater charm participation of the festive activities since they are the main protagonists.