Sitges Carnival – End of Feb, start of March (25/02 – 5/03)

• A massive part and carnival with floats, dancers & bands
• Maundy Thursday begins with the arrival of His Majesty Carnival
• Parades called ‘Debauchery and Extermination’, held respectively on ‘Sunday and Shrove Tuesday night’
• Children parade in the afternoon
• Different groups compete with floats, costumes & dance moves
• Carnival accompanied by the Carnival Queen
• Xatonadas, dances, and other activities are held
• Carnival ends on Ash Wednesday with the funeral of Her Majesty Carnival
• A funeral procession with mourners along Paseo de la Ribera
• Spectacular fireworks display closes the event

Rally –  Start of March

• Rally of vintage cars
• Passengers dress in vintage costumes to match their vehicles
• From the Plaza Sant Jaume de Barcelona, ​​through the Garraf coastal road to Sitges Port Aiguadolç and onto the Sitges church and promanade

Easter Caramelles (Easter 22 March – 25 April)

The mysteries of Easter

Parade procession on Friday night
Detention of Jesus, Pilate balcony and the Virgin of Solitude

Caramelles –  Gloria Saturday & Easter Monday

Traditional Catalan songs to announce the start and end of the Easter Holy Week. With regional Catalan differences

• Different groups of singers from the village come to Gloria Saturday night, and all day on Easter Monday in front of the town hall
• Men wearing the typical beret, carnation, which is the symbol of Sitges, and accompanied by a band
• From house to house to offer these songs
• Dedicated to ladies and always sung in Catalan
• Usually composed by musicians from Sitges
• Each group has a basket, which was well decorated with ribbons, bells, with carnations and stuck a very long pole to reach the balconies of the houses, and thus can collect the gifts from ladies

St. Georges Day – April 23rd

• April 23rd to honour the knight, St. George
• Killed whilst on his white horse by a fierce dragon
• Who tried to eat a beautiful maiden
• St. George is a deeply rooted celebration held in Catalonia
• Customary for couples to give away a book and a rose
• Sitges organise a ‘Book Fair and Rose Stalls’
• There are musical and street traditional performances

Corpus – June 1st (start of June)

• Celebration of Corpus Christi
• Long established festivals, attracting many visitors to the town
• Street carpets of carnations and spring flowers
• Carnations and bonsai exhibitions
• Competition of floral decorated facades and displays of the dancing egg
• Parade of the giants of Sitges
• Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of the wreath through the streets of the old town covered with carnations and other flowers

Fiesta de San Juan – 23rd – 24th of June

• 23rd and 24th of June
• Fireworks display, the festival,  and the big
• Acts that have been developed throughout the history of the local neighbourhoods (the Habanera, the pipers)

San Pedro – First weekend of July

• First weekend of July : Harvest Festival
• In honor of St. Peter (fisherman) and Sitges old fishing district
• Traditional feast show neighbourhood pride
• Firework starts Friday, with groups of devils and the dragonHuman Castles, Castellers
• Musical performance
• Saturday morning  begins with a football championship
• Morterets (Individual loud explosions/fireworks)
• Bells ring out loud and invite everyone to celebrate
• More fireworks
• Fair with rides
• Plaza Castellers
• Sunday has a festive but solemn Prossesion in the chapel of St. Sebastian (1.30pm).
• Honouring the patron saint, the apostle St. Peter, in the setting of the chapel to the sea and the beach
• Neighborhood parade with dragons and firework for Children
• Commemorative plaque to the oldest person in the neighborhood and all the older people present at the event offered an exclusive ‘vermouth aperitif’  (to mark respect and as a tribute to thank those who have gone before us and take into account of their experience
• Championships take place (petanque, futsal and sausage) with prizes
• In the afternoon the children enjoy an animated show of clowns and puppets
• It ends with a spectacular fireworks

Campdàsens – 1st Sunday of July

• 1st Sunday of July
• Association of Campdàsens Garraf & city of Sitges
• Dedicated to the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ
• Amongst the Garraf houses that were inhabited by farmers and those who took care of forests (to give thanks for those beginnings)
• Campdàsens 11th Century Tower & 1853 Chapel

Feast of Our Lady, the Virgin of Carmen – Mid July (14th – 16th)

• One of the oldest celebrations in the Sitges calendar
• Honor Fishermen the oldest of trades
• Promote local seafood
• Conference, the day of the Virgin of Carmen, by Ocean in 2012
  (a group of NGOs working internationally to protect seabed and promote fishing)
• In late summer, Sitges host the Posidonia Festival often from August 31 to September
• Festival of art, environment and sustainable development
  (to protect a marine plant that is essential to life and protect ecosystems of the Mediterranean coasts from erosion)

Lady of Carmen – July 16th

• Patron saint, Virgin of Carmen, for sailors in Sitges
• 16th July is feast day with a mass
• Started in 18th century to commemorate 1251 legend
• Virgin Mary gave a Carmelite  Scapular (religious cloth) to St. Simon which saved an English ship adrift amid a fierce storm
• As a celebration to ask protection from the dangers of the sea
• Involving a procession starting on land and onto the sea, via boats with one displaying the image of the Virgin of Carmen on the front
• From port Aiguadolçs along the Sitges bay to the west
• Every year a different fishing boat has the honour of carrying the image of the Virgin Mary
• At the height of the cemetery, Pomells throw flowers in memory of the sailors and devotees of the Virgin and to protect them from possible storms and shipwrecks

Lady Vinyet – August 3rd – 4th

• Gathering at the sanctuary of Vinyet (el santuari del Vinyet)
• Various events throughout the day
• Praise the Mother of God who’s name can be identified with parts of Sitges
• Neoclassical sanctuary built in 1727, with a single nave and apse chapels on either side of the chancel (35 x 15 m)
• The facade was restored in 1847
• Four entrance columns which support an elegant Tuscan style cornice
• The current tower was built later
• It has a 40 cm image of the Virgin of vignettes with a 15 base

St. Bartholomew Festival – August 21st – 27th

• In honor of St. Bartholomew, patron saint of the town
• Festival for various ages
• Declared of national interest, by the Government of Catalonia
• Begins on August 21st with proclamatio, until the 27th
• Dance of the Sardana at San Sebastian beach
• August 22nd evening- delivery of the flag of Saint Bartholomew by President of the Commission of Santa Tecla Festival and by the clergy
• 23th The Eve of St. Bartholomew and 24th of August, are most important
• 12 noon – entrance of crows (St. Francis Street, Cape Villa, Main Street and City Hall Square)
• 2 pm, the bells ring out, 21 morterets are fired off and Head of the village dances the Sardana
• Procession of St. Bartholomew’s with Antonio Catalan Enric Morera’s festival
• ¼ 3 dances
• Giants from the Town Hall Square, down the Main Street
• Human towers in Sitges Village

• Flag procession leaves the home of the person who holds the presidency of the Commission of the Santa Tecla Festival
• The holy tabernacle is placed at the altar
• Fireworks display – 11 pm
• Sardana dance and dance music
• Saint Bartholomew is on August 24 at 6am with dancing, hors d’oeuvres, parade of flowers, band
• Solemn profession of St. Bartholomew
• Sardana Festival and band with shepherds cercolets, moixiganga
• Young Sitges human towers and League of Young Castellers
• A religious procession, leaving in the afternoon from the church
• Giants and dragons firing sparks & fireworks

September 11 Festival – September 11th

• National Catalonia holiday
• The day in 1714 when Catalonia  was defeated by Spanish troops of Philip V of Bourbon
• Losing it’s status as a sovereign nation along with it”s national rights, laws and suffered a ban on language and culture
• After years of obscurity, Catalonia acquired a status of autonomy  in 1932, as part of the Second Spanish Republic, recovering some of its national independance
• After the Civil War, the Franco dictatorship repressed Catalonia culturally and executed thousands including the President of the Government of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, the only European president executed by the Nazi-fascism
• In 1979 a new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia was  approved, which allowed a level of self-government (but not enough, for many)
• Many Catalans demonstrate in the streets to demand the recognition of our national rights and self-government
• Sitges commemorates with an official ceremony which invites all associations and groups in the town to make a wreath
• Concert ardana dance in the evening
• More: www.11setembre.org

Harvest – Weekend in September

• Sitges devotes a weekend to the September harvest
• Organized by the Tourism Promotion and sponsorship of Torres
• Start on Friday evening with the proclamation of the heiress of Sitges
• On Sunday morning the first pressing is offered in the Mass celebrated in the parish
• In the afternoon, the grape trepitjadors contest will mark a spectacular celebration to remind the importance of the wine industry in the Penedes
• Sardana Dance

Santa Tecla – September 23rd

• September 23rd
• Honour of Patron Saint Santa Tecla (since 1980’s)
• Winter festival (saying goodbye to summer)
• Children build dragons, giant eagles, tadpoles and rehearsing ‘gypsies dance’ with tambourines to tape (the evening before)
• Festival at entrance of St. Bartholomew Tabernacle church

Christmas and Three Kings parade – December/January

• Suburense Casino Prado, the Recreational Society and the Association of Retirement dances, celibate Christmas (Xmas)
• Prado and Retiro with crib (nativity scene), singing, dances with prizes  (gifts) of traditional Christmas delicacy
• Nativity scene at the shrine of Our Lady of Vinyet and the Hospital of St. John the Baptist
• Pessebrista Group organizes annual exhibition of dioramas and cradle contest, activities carried out in Palau del Rey Moro
• Traditional Three Kings parade through the streets of the town center
• Sitges Christmas lighting and representations of the Nativity

In Catalan