“San Sebastian” Street

calle-de-san-sebas­t­ian

When exit­ing Casa Blan­ca go straight on San Sebas­t­ian Street until you reach the cor­ner with “Calle Cristo”.  There you will find the famous “Plaza San José”, where the “Fies­tas de la Calle San Sebastián” take place every year on the third week­end of Jan­u­ary. You will rec­og­nize it because it has the stat­ue of Juan Ponce de León in the center.

Puer­to Ricans love to par­ty.  And Puer­to Rico has the longest Christ­mas sea­son in the world.  It all starts on Thanks­giv­ing Day, as the Amer­i­can-inspired turkey din­ner tra­di­tion takes on a Latin fla­vor of its own.  Many fam­i­lies lit­er­al­ly bring home their turkey in one hand and their Christ­mas tree and orna­ments in the oth­er. Often, while the turkey is roast­ing away in the oven, the fam­i­ly will be busy dec­o­rat­ing their Christ­mas tree.  From there, the Christ­mas sea­son extends for approx­i­mate­ly sev­en weeks and it all ends with the “Fies­tas de La Calle San Sebastian”.

This hasn’t always been the case.  In colo­nial times, Christ­mas sea­son start­ed on the 24th of Decem­ber with “La Nochebue­na” or holy night, that marked the night pre­ced­ing the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  From there the peri­od extend­ed until Jan­u­ary 6, when the most impor­tant fes­tiv­i­ty, “El Día de Los Reyes Magos” or Three Kings Day” was celebrated.

In 1898, the Unit­ed States invad­ed Puer­to Rico and brought along Thanks­giv­ing and San­ta Claus.  Now don’t for­get, Puer­to Ricans love to Par­ty.  So now we had this new bird that we learned to stuff with plan­tains and gar­lic and a chub­by guy, in a red and white suit, with­out any chim­neys to climb into.  So how do you make the best it all?  ¡You party!

Then father Madra­zo came along in 1954 and orga­nized the first “Fies­tas de la Calle San Sebas­t­ian” to col­lect funds to restore many of the dete­ri­o­rat­ed struc­tures on the street.  One thing led to anoth­er and the orga­niz­ers decid­ed to include the famous “cabezu­dos”, which orig­i­nal­ly wore giant masks rep­re­sent­ing the Span­ish mon­archs Fer­nan­do and Isabel and marched down the street along­side res­i­dents, musi­cians and participants.

Today the “cabezu­dos” rep­re­sent many char­ac­ters derived from Puer­to Rican folk­lore and march down the street fol­lowed by a “com­parsa” and thou­sands of par­tic­i­pants.  A “com­parsa” is a small musi­cal group that gen­er­al­ly includes sev­er­al plen­era drums, güiros and maracas.

But the “Fies­tas de la Calle San Sebas­t­ian” go way beyond the “cabezu­dos” parade.  The week-long event also has arti­san fairs, chess match­es, folk­loric events and con­certs under the stars.  In fact, it’s the largest event in the world tak­ing place dur­ing the month of January.

The reli­gious aspect is kept alive by a pro­ces­sion in hon­or of the patron saint and a mass that’s tra­di­tion­al­ly cel­e­brat­ed on Sat­ur­day evening.

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