Besides the most important holidays, Christmas, Holy Week, All Saints Day, etc., all towns and cities, and even neighbourhoods and professions have their patron saints whose feasts last for a number of days. These are high feasts, which do not prevent the celebration of other feasts in honour of other saints. The majority of high feasts are observed in summer and fall, following harvest time. That is the justification of such festivals as the 'Sanfermines' in Pamplona, Valencia's Fallas, Sevilla's Feria de Abril and Madrid's San Isidro.

In addition to these popular events, the different Holy Week celebrations in many Spanish cities should be mentioned, especially the ones in Sevilla.

But be it a secular or religious feast, there are always bulls present, the adult bulls in the most important rings and the younger ones (novillos) in the minor rings.

The Fiesta Nacional, as the bullfight is called in Spain, is experiencing an unexpected revitalization, with a great increase in spectators and to the apprearance of a new generation of young bullfighters who alternate with the confirmed masters.

Bullfighting was originally done on horseback and was a sport reserved for the aristocracy. It was practiced in two different ways, either the rider and his mount were face to face with the bull or they practically sideswiped the animal trying to spear it during the fight. Gonzalo Argote de Molina was the first to write down the precepts of bullfighting in his book or 'Libro de la Monteria' which Alfonso XI commissioned him to write. However the most detailed tracts on the practice of bullfighting on horseback were written around the middle of the 17th century.

The vassals or assistants were only there to hand the spears to their masters or help them to up if they happened to fall off their horse during the fight.

A radical transformation took place in bullfighting when Felipe V prohibited the nobles from practicing it, as he considered the sport a bad example for the public's education.

From then on the aristocrats' assistants, common men, took it over and began to fight bulls unarmed by dodging them, pole vaulting over them, raising small spears, the origin of today's 'banderillas' and also using objects or rags to sidestep the beasts, a pastime which took such deep root and became so popular that eminent researchers like Thebusen and the Count de las Navas began calling it the 'most national' of feasts.

The transformation from horseback to fighting bulls on foot took place around the year 1724, however during those times posters didn't exist and bullfights were announced by the town crier.

Very little known about the first bullfighters until Joaquin Rodriguez (Costillares), Pedro Romero and Jose Delgado (Pepe-Illo) made relevant contributions to bullfighting and professionalized it. Delgado did a great deal to stimulate and regulate the art and wrote the first didactic work on bullfighting on foot.

The democratic city councils have played a preponderant role in the recovery of traditional feasts and festivals. 'Romerias' (celebrations held near a shrine), Mardi Gras carnivals, especially those held in the Canary Islands and Cadiz, dances and processions have been revived in great part thanks to the local administrations. At present, the public has retrieved a wide variety of national folklore. There are the 'sevillanas' which have become fashionable in the discos, and 'muneira', 'sardana', and 'aragonese' and 'castilian jota' groups abound while more and more people are becoming enthusiasts of 'flamenco' and 'cante jondo'. As has ocurred with other traditions, folk dances and music seem to have profited from a modernization of customs.