Festivals
AGÜIMES
CARNIVALS In the month of February there is a date on the festival calendar that doesn’t go unnoticed. The Carnival is one of the most popular festivals here in Agüimes, and one of the best-known outside the municipality. This annual festival has been celebrated in this town since the times of the Spanish Conquest of the island, and its celebration was only interrupted during the Spanish Civil War. The most celebrated Carnival activities are: the Murgas contest, in which the different murgas singing groups, both from within the municipality and outside, bring their humour and ingenuity to the fore through the lyrics in their songs, as well as the brightness and creativity of their costumes; the Old Carnival Dance, held on Carnival Tuesday which revives all the traditions of Lent, where girls with masked faces are cover their heads with bags and go round playing tricks on friends and acquaintances, and where rice puddings and Carnival tortillas with honey are eaten, to the rythms of local musical bands; plus the Sardine Burial on Ash Wednesday, following the traditional mourning procession, in which the masked girls, many of them dressed up in widows’ clothing, cry over the loss of the sardine (and the end of the Carnival) and finish up opposite the church where they set fire to the figure representing the sardine in a spectacular show of fireworks that shoot out from it.
Cuisine
Tourism Office
TYPICAL PRODUCTS FROM THE MUNICIPALITY
Information Office for Agüimes Historic Town Centre Plaza de San Antón (Casco Histórico Tel: (+34) 928 789 980 ext 2694 turismo@aguimes.es www.visitaguimes.com
Wine Oil Goats cheese
Typical Recipe Snails with fennels INGREDIENTS 1 kg. of snails 1 bundle of fennel 5 cloves of garlic Small amount of cumin 1 spicy pepper Sea salt
Gran Canaria Tourist Board Triana, 93 35002 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Tel: (+34) 928 219 600 Fax: (+34) 928 219 601
www.grancanaria.com
Old Carnival Party.
PREPARATION
MUNICIPALITIES OF GRAN CANARIA
The snails are washed and carefully cleaned. Gofio is then added and they are left for a day to purge and be dirt free. They are then washed through again another three or four times, then drained and a handful of salt is poured over them to make sure they are perfectly clean. Again they are rinsed with abundant water and placed into a tall pot with water and heated up. A handful of fennel is added to the cooking water along with a paste made up of crushed garlic, cumin and spicy pepper. This is then left on a low heat and covered for half an hour. The lid is then removed and if the snails are nearly out of their shells, the heat is turned up and with a skimming ladle any foam formed on the water is removed. The heat is then turned down and left to cook for a further half hour. The snails are checked to see if they can be taken out of the shells and if it is still difficult to do so, the heat is left on for one last time.