San Juan: Events

San Juan's Fiesta de San Juan Bautista (Festival of St John the Baptist) in late June wonderfully fuses pagan and Catholic iconography and Indian, African and Spanish traditions. There are solemn religious aspects and plenty of feasting, music, dancing and colourful costumed processions. The highlight of the parade is a communal luck-enhancing midnight walk backwards into the sea. The three weeks of Las Navidades , beginning on 15 December, are the peak period of socializing and religious observation, though many of the celebrations take place at family homes. The climax comes on 6 January, when hordes of children advance on La Fortaleza to receive presents from the governor.

Old San Juan takes to the streets during the Saint Sebastian Festival in the third week of January. The Casals Festival honours the famous Puerto Rican cellist in June. It attracts classical musicians of international repute and is one of the Caribbean's major cultural events. In Bayamón, part of metropolitan San Juan, July's Festival del Chicarrón celebrates the smoked ham delicacy. The International Old Lacers Convention in August gives you a chance to get wrapped up in traditional Puerto Rican mundillo lace. Sanjuaneros get baseball fever when the season starts in November, reaching its climax in February.