Dominican Culture - Fiestas Patronales

If you are interested in Dominican culture you will need to find out when your town or barrio has its annual 'patron saint festival'.

It is a time not to be missed in your home town and they can be quite colourful as people dress up, events are held and the town centre is closed down at night for merryment and music. in the campo you will often see the menfolk dress up in their best cowboy outfits with all the leather on display. Duarte province is a good place for this in Villa Riva.

When Nicolás de Ovando arrived in 1502, he was in charge of organizing Hispaniola, with the task of creating cities and urban centers. The first thing he did was set up a city near the coast.

There he placed the Government House (town hall), the church and the hospital, the fortress and, to introduce Catholicism, each city was named after the patron saint that the church commemorated on the day of its foundation. This gives rise to the celebrations that are known today as Fiestas Patronales.

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For this celebration, they join the church, the mayor's office and the town to form a brotherhood together, through which they organize, plan and carry out this commemoration that regularly lasts nine days.

During almost the whole year in the Dominican Republic patron saint festivities are celebrated in honor of the patron saint of each town or region. Among the most original, well-known and popular are the festivals of the Virgen de la Altagracia, Virgen de las Mercedes, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, San Juan and Santa Bárbara, in Samaná.

The employer associations of Higuey, Bayahibe, El Seybo and those of San Juan are distinguished because in addition to what all the other regions do, they have their particularities.

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The country has two saints who protect it: the Virgen de la Altagracia and the Virgen de las Mercedes. It is natural that these have many more followers and places where they are the patron saints. Thus, on January 21 , Altagracia day, there are patron saints in Higuey, Villa Altagracia, Castañuelas, San José de Ocoa and Pedernales.

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Our Lady of Mercedes, September 24 , with patron saint festivities in Santiago Rodríguez, Imbert, Santo Cerro, Pimentel, Jánico, Cabrera, Hato Mayor and Palenque.

Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7, is the patron saint of Dajabón, Sánchez, Barahona, Cabral, Mencía, Cristóbal and Espaillat.

Another patron saint of various communities is Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to be celebrated on July 16 . She is the patron saint of Los Almácigos, Jarabacoa, Gaspar Hernández, José Contreras, Cayetano Germosén, Duvergé and Moca.

On June 13 , San Antonio celebrates patron saint festivities in Monción, Sosúa, Tenares, Villa Riva, Bonao, Miches and Monte Plata. San José is another favorite with celebrations in Villa Vásquez, Altamira, Restauración and San José de las Matas.

There are many more patron saints throughout the national territory. 

One 'fiesta patronales' which could be of interest to expats and visitors staying on the East Coast will be that of the town of  El Seibo and es you will be able to see bull fighting:

https://ayuntamientoelseibo.gob.do/cultura/

The Seibanas patron saint festivities are celebrated in honor of the Holy Cross who is the patron saint of our town.

The festival is opened from the first of May, becoming a variable on May 3 to celebrate the main day in honor of the Holy Cross, patron saint of the festivities.

In the patron saint festivities, in addition to the artistic presentations that are staged every night, other activities of the town are carried out, filling the entire festivities with joy and color.

The afternoons are adorned with majestic bullfights, a cultural event typical of our town.

These patron saint festivities are celebrated with great joy and partly with a great religious sense, although over time they have changed in the way they are currently celebrated.

bullfighting

Bullfights originate in Spain and with the arrival of the colonizers in these lands, they spread the bullfighting tradition in various regions, being more accentuated in El Seibo.

For this reason, each year the bullfights in honor of the Holy Cross, the last Spanish treasure that came to the country, are celebrated with joy and great enthusiasm.

Bullfights are a massive event that have never gone unnoticed in the tradition of our town.