Tradition marks some unavoidable appointments for All Saints’ Day. Seville is contradictory, with its shop windows crowded with pumpkins and cobwebs but the windows of bakeries and confectioneries full of saint’s bones.
Customs coexist with trends and with certain foreign terms. Thus, the city keeps its agenda dedicated to this festivity with local plans like the ones we propose below.
1. Visit the San Fernando Cemetery
The usual practice holds that for All Saints’ Day it is appropriate to bring flowers to the cemetery, a sort of ritual to bring happiness to the deceased. For such an occasion, the characteristic flowers of All Saints’ Day are chrysanthemums.
As a curiosity, this is a special flower for this date because its blooming coincides with the end of autumn and serves to represent that life is only a transit.
Those who like to stroll through the cemetery and want to know the great artistic heritage that has the San Fernando cemetery in Seville here are its 10 essential funerary monuments.
📍 Av. Dr Fedriani, s/n
2. The Night of the Tenorio
The Tuna de Filosofía y Letras de Sevilla has been celebrating this event since the seventies. Along the streets of the Santa Cruz neighborhood musicians, neighbors and onlookers gather to enjoy this night of theater, music and route through one of the most emblematic areas of the city.
The tuna starts its journey in the Hostería del Laurel in a parade that continues through the Plaza de los Refinadores or the Plaza de Santa Marta, where sonnets will be sung under the moonlight.
3. Don Juan in the cemetery by the light of the candle.
There is a long tradition in Seville that irrevocably links All Saints’ Day with Don Juan Tenorio. Consolidated for years, the dramatized visits to the cemetery of San Fernando are already a tradition and have brought together more than 35,000 people.
This year they return from the hand of Engranajes Culturales and will be held from October 30 to December 11. The visit “Don Juan Tenorio in the Cemetery of San Fernando” enjoys great popularity in the capital of Seville and for this edition are expected.
4. Try Cal Viva’s stew.
It is not so easy to find, when cloned restaurants reign, proposals devoted to guisoteo, to good cooking, elevating the products available in the market.
That is why Cal Viva is one of those places that you should visit: rural gastronomy, Andalusian terroir and an admirable wine cellar.
Ideal for a getaway for All Saints. Discover Morón de la Frontera by the hand of Leo Ramos, Julio Domínguez and Teresa Gómez, arteries of this restaurant that is home.
5. Eating buñuelos de viento
The history of this dessert filled with cream, chocolate or whipped cream dates back to the 10th century, when the Jews celebrated Hanukkah with buns called “bimuelos”. Later, Christianity adopted them as a custom and they became as well known as churros.
There was a time when they were not so popular in Seville, as it was also a term that referred to salty fritters, usually cod.
These sweet morsels now enjoy the fame they deserve in Seville and All Saints’ Day is the excuse we needed to indulge in this traditional sweet.
📍 Where: Manu Jara(c/ Pureza, 5 | Gourmet Experience El Corte Inglés)
6. Or huesos de santo
The reader who prefers to say goodbye to this day to be a little closer to Christmas should go in search of huesos de santo. Marzipan on the outside; cream-filled on the inside. Their macabre name, so appropriate for the date, is due to their off-whitecolor.
📍 Where: Confectionery La Campana(c/ Sierpes, 1) | Confectionery Los Ángeles(c/Adriano, 2) | Obrador “Alján” El Gallego(c/ El Coronil, 29)
7. Walk and chestnuts
Although autumn in Seville seems to be an extension of the summer in very bad taste, the aroma of chestnuts that already permeates the streets of the city is a good therapy to deal with the weather.
Calle Tetuán, the Setas de Sevilla or the Avenida de la Constitución are some of the enclaves where you can enjoy a heaping cone of chestnuts.
If, on the other hand, you prefer a getaway around chestnuts, Ojen celebrates its traditional Tostón Popular.
A big bonfire, chestnuts and raisins, local liquors, popular games and other victuals typical of the season and the province of Malaga on November 2.
8. Escape to beautiful villages near Seville.
One of the virtues of the province of Seville is that a few minutes separate the capital from the most beautiful getaways.
In little more or little less than 1 hour by car one can admire some of the most charming villages of Andalusia without leaving the province or barely surpassing its borders. These are the most beautiful excursions that you can do near Seville.