The Carnival is a celebration throughout the Canary Islands, but not all municipalities in the archipelago consider Carnival Tuesday a public holiday. In the province of Las Palmas, the three capitals of the islands –Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Puerto del Rosario, and Arrecife– have chosen February 13, Carnival Tuesday, as a public holiday. On the other hand, in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it is only a holiday in three of the four island capitals: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de La Palma, and San Sebastián de La Gomera. Valverde, in El Hierro, remains unaffected, and the only one of the three municipalities in El Hierro to take a holiday on February 13 is La Frontera.
Carnival Tuesday is a holiday in 44 municipalities in the Canary Islands, half of the 88 in the Canary Islands archipelago. Fourteen of these belong to the province of Las Palmas and 30 to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Canary municipalities where Carnival Tuesday is celebrated, organized by provinces, islands, and in alphabetical order, are as follows:
Las Palmas
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
- Tenerife: Adeje, Arafo, Arico, Arona, Buenavista del Norte, Candelaria, El Rosario, Fasnia, Granadilla de Abona, Icod de los Vinos, La Laguna, La Matanza, La Orotava, La Victoria, Los Silos, San Miguel de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santa Úrsula, and Tacoronte.
- La Palma: Barlovento, Breña Alta, Fuencaliente, Los Llanos de Aridane, Puntagorda, Puntallana, Santa Cruz de La Palma, and Tijarafe
- La Gomera: San Sebastián de La Gomera.
- El Hierro: La Frontera.
Other Carnival Days
Although Carnival Tuesday is only a holiday in half of the Canary municipalities, several mark a public holiday around this time, but on another day. This is the case for three municipalities in Las Palmas province.
The exceptions in Las Palmas are the municipality of Agüimes, which chooses the Thursday of Carnival -February 15- as a holiday, and the municipalities of Antigua and Betancuria in Fuerteventura, which celebrate Carnival Monday, although the former chooses February 5 and the latter March 11.
