Yearly celebrations held in countries influenced by Christianity
A patronal feast or patronal festival[a][3] (Spanish: fiesta patronal; Catalan: festa patronal; Portuguese: festa patronal; Italian: festa patronale; French: fête patronale) is a yearly celebration dedicated – in countries influenced by Christianity – to the 'heavenly advocate' or 'patron' of the location holding the festival, who is a saint or virgin. The day of this celebration is called patronal feast day, patronal day or patron day[4] of said location.
Patronal festivals may reflect national holidays (e.g. the feast of Saint George, patron saint of England, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, and various regions of Spain), but they usually reflect the celebration of a single city or town.
In larger cities, there may even be several festivals, usually about the patron saint of the local parish.
Celebration
Depending to the budget, patronal festivals may run from one day to five days.
The festivities usually include religious processions honoring its Catholic heritage. However, elements of local culture have been incorporated as well.
Usually, town members adorn the town streets with colorful decorations and other things.
.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}@media all and (max-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{width:auto!important;clear:none!important;float:none!important))You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (October 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the German article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,897 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Patronatsfest]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template ((Translated|de|Patronatsfest)) to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
France
You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the French article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,445 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:fête patronale]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template ((Translated|fr|fête patronale)) to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Italy
You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Italian article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 664 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:festa del santo patrono]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template ((Translated|it|festa del santo patrono)) to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 938 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:fiesta patronal]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template ((Translated|es|fiesta patronal)) to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Most Latin American countries dedicate the first day to the saint or virgin being celebrated, the others to entertainment, but in the USterritory of Puerto Rico the musical and entertainment festivities begin right away.
^By definition, a feast is a "day of commemoration set aside for an important personage, such as a saint" while a festival is a "period of celebration often centered around a religious feast day or a holiday." A feast, then, is a one-day celebration focused on its one special personage; the focus of a festival is much wider.[1][2]
^Inserra, Incoronata (2017). Global tarantella : reinventing southern Italian folk music and dances. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN978-0-252-08283-2.