Tenerife, Spain, march 2025 - Jan & Jan-Jan's Rejseklubben

Tenerife Carnival 202, this year, they are celebrating with the exciting theme ‘Secrets of Africa’. The carnival was brought to the Canary Islands by Spanish and Portuguese sailors and merchants en route to the New World following the conquest of the island in 1496. With strong links established with The Americas carnival on Tenerife gradually took on more of a Latino flavour than a Spanish one.

Like carnival everywhere, it was an excuse for a wild shindig before Lent and was frowned upon by the Catholic Church who tried to ban it more than once. The Spanish Civil War ended the carnival party briefly, although in Tenerife it carried on after the war under the guise of 'winter fiestas'. Authorities during Franco's regime tended to turned a blind eye to what everyone knew was carnival even though it had been banned throughout Spain.