Customs, Festivals and Celebrations

Talking about las fiestas y las celebraciones means describing what happens and how you take part. Build a bank of nouns and verbs first.

Español	English
la fiesta	party / festival
la celebración	celebration
celebrar	to celebrate
la costumbre	custom
la tradición	tradition
el día festivo	public holiday
el desfile	parade
la procesión	procession
los fuegos artificiales	fireworks
el disfraz / disfrazarse	costume / to dress up
el regalo / regalar	present / to give a gift
reunirse (con la familia)	to get together (with the family)
el cumpleaños	birthday
la boda	wedding

Careful with gender: it is la Navidad and la boda, but el día festivo — día is masculine even though it ends in -a.

The Spanish-speaking world has famous festivals worth naming accurately in the exam. Here are the key ones and what actually happens at each.

Festival	Dónde y cuándo	Qué pasa
la Navidad	25 de diciembre	family meal, gifts and villancicos (carols)
la Nochevieja	31 de diciembre	people eat twelve grapes at midnight
los Reyes Magos	6 de enero	cabalgatas (parades) on the 5th; children get gifts on the 6th
la Semana Santa	marzo o abril	Holy Week processions, famous in Sevilla
las Fallas	Valencia, marzo	huge figures are built and burned on 19 March
la Tomatina	Buñol, último miércoles de agosto	a huge tomato fight
los Sanfermines	Pamplona, del 6 al 14 de julio	the running of the bulls (el encierro)
el Día de Muertos	México, 1 y 2 de noviembre	families honour the dead with altars (ofrendas)

• En España, mucha gente cena en familia en Nochebuena. — In Spain, many people have dinner with family on Christmas Eve.
• El Día de Muertos es una tradición muy importante en México. — The Day of the Dead is a very important tradition in Mexico.

To describe a festival you attended, use the preterite for the actions that happened. Regular endings:

Persona	-ar (celebrar)	-er / -ir (comer)
yo	celebré	comí
tú	celebraste	comiste
él/ella	celebró	comió
nosotros	celebramos	comimos
vosotros	celebrasteis	comisteis
ellos/ellas	celebraron	comieron

Key irregulars: fui (ir/ser — went/was), hice (hacer), vi (ver), di (dar).

Examples:

• El año pasado fui a las Fallas de Valencia con mi familia. — Last year I went to the Fallas in Valencia with my family.
• Comimos doce uvas a medianoche y vimos los fuegos artificiales. — We ate twelve grapes at midnight and watched the fireworks.
• Lo pasé genial y saqué muchas fotos. — I had a great time and took lots of photos.

The imperfect describes what things were like: the weather, the crowd, the atmosphere. It answers "what was happening", not "what happened once".

Persona	-ar (estar)	-er / -ir (tener)
yo	estaba	tenía
tú	estabas	tenías
él/ella	estaba	tenía
nosotros	estábamos	teníamos
vosotros	estabais	teníais
ellos/ellas	estaban	tenían

Key irregulars: era (ser), iba (ir), veía (ver). Use había for "there was / there were".

Rule of thumb: preterite for the actions ("what I did"), imperfect for the description and background ("what things were like").

• Había mucha gente en la calle y todos bailaban. — There were lots of people in the street and everyone was dancing.
• Hacía buen tiempo y la música era genial. — The weather was nice and the music was great.

Lift the writing by adding an opinion and by looking forward with the near future (ir a + infinitive).

Opiniones y adjetivos	Conectores
me encanta esta fiesta porque...	y (and)
fue una experiencia inolvidable	pero (but)
lo mejor fue...	además (besides)
en mi opinión	sin embargo (however)
es una tradición muy animada / ruidosa	aunque (although)

Adjectives to describe a festival: animado (lively), ruidoso (noisy), emocionante (exciting), inolvidable (unforgettable), colorido (colourful).

• Fue una fiesta muy animada, aunque había demasiada gente. — It was a very lively festival, although there were too many people.
• El año que viene voy a celebrar la Nochevieja con mis amigos. — Next year I'm going to celebrate New Year's Eve with my friends.

A festival answer works best when it mixes preterite (actions), imperfect (description) and an opinion. Adapt this model:

El verano pasado fui a la Tomatina en Buñol con mi familia. Había miles de personas y todos llevaban ropa blanca. Hacía mucho calor y la gente estaba muy contenta. Nos tiramos tomates durante una hora y lo pasamos genial. Fue una experiencia inolvidable y el año que viene voy a volver.

Last summer I went to the Tomatina in Buñol with my family. There were thousands of people and everyone was wearing white clothes. It was very hot and people were very happy. We threw tomatoes at each other for an hour and had a great time. It was an unforgettable experience and next year I'm going to go back.

1. Mixing up the preterite and the imperfect

Use the preterite for what happened (fui, comí) and the imperfect for the scene (había mucha gente, hacía calor). Describing background with the preterite sounds wrong.

2. Dropping the accent on preterite endings

The accent is what marks the tense: celebré and celebró are past, but celebro (no accent) is the present. Write the accent every time.

3. Getting the gender of día wrong

It is el día festivo and un buen día, even though día ends in -a.

4. Using the wrong preposition with ir

You go to a party with a: fui a la fiesta, not fui en la fiesta.

5. Forgetting lo in "lo pasé bien"

The set phrase for "I had a good time" is lo pasé bien / genial. Do not drop the lo.