Holiday Calendar for Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican traditions are famous worldwide. Traditions in Puerto Rico have been around for centuries. Puerto Rican has many wonderful traditions. Notable events, festivals, special days and national holidays in Puerto Rico

Every summer down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, thousands of Puerto Ricans attend the parade, set to celebrate its an anniversary. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, event celebrating Puerto Ricans that takes place in the United States, with a number of cultural activities held and educational scholarships. A significant event, it has become tradition for many generations of Puerto Ricans to come together to attend the parade.
The Puerto Rican Christmas or Navidad season lasts approximately from the end of November at around Thanksgiving, until mid-January. Music is often played during Christmas time and popular songs include “Feliz Navidad” by Jose Feliciano, and “Canto a Borinquen” by salsa standouts Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón, with assistance from Yomo Toro. Food is very important, and traditional Christmas dishes that are frequently on the menu during the season include pasteles, pork cooked in different ways (especially a la parrilla), and arroz con dulce. Before the Spanish arrived, the Taíno diet consisted mainly of corn, birds, fruit, capsicum peppers and seafood. The native Taínos used a cooking cauldron, called a caldero, that is still ubiquitous in Puerto Rican kitchens. Dishes like mofongo, asopao, or tostones may be considered exotic by visitors to the island, but for Puerto Ricans, traditional dishes like these are everyday food. Their ingredients and recipes reflect part of Puerto Rican culinary history and the cultures that have shaped it.
Ethnically, Puerto Ricans are largely mixed, but according to government figures, about three quarters of the residents are mostly of Spanish origin, while blacks make up about 7 percent of the population. Puerto Rico is among the many countries worldwide that are predominantly Spanish-speaking. Anyone that’s flown to Puerto Rico might’ve already seen first-hand that sometimes Puerto Ricans clap when the plane lands at the airport runway.
One clothing tradition that is still popular today is the guayabera shirt. This is a loose-fitting, button-up men’s shirt that has multiple front pockets. Even though many Puerto Ricans have adopted styles from the United States, performances of traditional dances will call for the dancers to wear traditional clothing. Long ruffled dresses of white or bright colors are common for these performances. For the bomba, one traditional dance, women wear a dress with a full skirt and petticoat, while men wear white pants and shirts as well as panama hats.