Puerto de la Cruz's major international festival is the La Carnaval. This is one big party that lasts about a week. Every single night, there is much revelry in the streets, eating, drinking, dancing, and otherwise partying wild. Revelers are dressed in all sorts of fancy clothing and there are theme-based celebrations in various places. La Carnaval usually coincides with the beginning of the Lenten season, with Ash Wednesday falling in the middle of the La Carnaval week. On this day, the Funeral of the Sardine is observed. At night, a large figurine of a sardine is carried throughout town in a procession and brought down to the harbor, where it is burned on a funeral pyre. Throughout the procession, macabrely dressed girls wail in the streets. After the burning of the figurine, fireworks are spectacularly set off.
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Another unique, although somewhat strange, Puerto de la Cruz festivity is The Night of the Tin. This usually falls on St. Andrew's Night, on the 29 th of November every year. Traditionally, this is the night when wine cellars throughout town are opened to visitors so new wine may be sampled. In the evening, youngsters of the town run around town with pieces of tin on string dragging on the ground creating a huge racket everywhere.
Puerto de la Cruz also observes the regular Catholic holidays, such as Holy Week, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, and various saints' feast days.
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