• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Fuerteventura Now

Fuerteventura Now

Your Complete Guide to Fuerteventura

  • Blog
  • Discover Fuerteventura
    • Municipals
    • Towns & Villages
    • Beaches
    • Exploring
  • About Fuerteventura
    • Flora & Fauna
    • History
  • Information
    • Living in Fuerteventura
    • Holidays in Spain
    • Weather
    • Website Help & Information
  • Local Directory
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Blog / Día de Canarias

Día de Canarias

10th June 2017 by Jill Terry Leave a Comment

After a lunch at the Taste Festival, we went down to Caleta de Fuste, where they were celebrating the Day of the Canaries festival. This day celebrates the anniversary of the first official Parliamentary session of the islands held on 30 May 1983 and is a public holiday. Celebrations take place on all the Canary Islands. Although the festival is named Day of the Canaries, the celebrations usually continue over the weekend.

It is a time to celebrate, and show off, Canarian traditions with a wide range of cultural events. In Caleta you could see gofio being made, women and men in traditional costume, and watch lucha Canarian (Canarian wrestling), Juego del Palo (stick fighting) and traditional folk dancers. As well as all that, there were stalls selling their wares and traditional Canarian food to be had (free of course!)

Lucha Canarian has been described as being a cross between sumo wrestling and judo! It’s a very ancient sport that began with the Guanches, the original inhabitants of the Canaries, and apparently the first known written reference to it was back in the 1400s. The objective is to force your opponent to touch the floor with any body part,except the feet.

Juego Del Palo is another sport that is believed to have originated with the Guanches. Although it is of course only a sport and form of art today, it was originally a form of self-defense, and it is believed that stick fighting was the inhabitants’ only defense against conquering armies. But the sticks were used for more than just fighting, and were an aid to move quickly up and down the mountains, using it as leverage for jumping from one level to another.

  • Dancer JT16913
  • Food JT16843
  • Gofio JT16847
  • Gofio JT16848
  • Gofio JT16856
  • Gofio JT16857
  • Gofio JT16851
  • Stick Fighting JT16907
  • Hammer Lift JT16880
  • Stick Fighting JT16893
  • Musicians JT16908
  • JT16915
  • Wrestling1 JT16805
  • Wrestling2 JT16806
  • Wrestling3 JT16812

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: dia de Canarias, events, fiesta, tradition

Content on this website is for guidance only. With regard to legal procedures, laws can change very quickly, and are often down to the interpretation of the official personnel you see on the day.  Read our Disclaimer for full details.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Photos

This site contains a LOT of photos!  Many are just shown as a thumbnail – to view them properly simply click them!  All photos are copyright.

What’s New

  • Madre del Agua 5th March 2021
  • Cofete 21st November 2020
  • Which Professional do I Need? 17th November 2020
  • Brexit and Visiting Fuerteventura 31st October 2020
  • Restaurante El Labrador 30th October 2020

Popular Posts

  • Is Fuerteventura in the EU?
  • Brexit, Expats and Fuerteventura
  • Flying with pets to Fuerteventura
  • Moving to Fuerteventura
  • Buying a Car

Footer

Keep in Touch!

Facebook
Join us on Facebook!

Youtube
Watch our Videos!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Site Information

  • Contact Us
  • How to use this website
  • Suggest a listing for the Local Directory
  • Disclaimer & Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies Policy
  • Terms and conditions

Copyright © 2021 · Fuerteventura Now