Tenerife Holiday Guide - Customs and Traditions

Fiestas, animation, sports and loads and loads of fun! Here are some of the words you can find on the tradition of Tinerfeños (people from Tenerife).
In the sports area, two of the most famous are the Canarian wrestling (lucha canaria) and the game of the stick.

The Canarian wrestling is the living testimony of the sport practised by Tenerife's aborigines during their feasts. Nowadays, this sport continues to please the general public and its followers. This sport is practised in a special practising field, called "terrero", a place present in almost all the villages of the island. The players show their power and dexterity by trying to throw each other onto the ground with spectacular movements. It is only permitted to lean on the feet, since touching the arena with any other part of the body means losing the "agarrada" or the point. Some say it is similar to Sumo wrestling.

The game of the stick, as its name indicates, is a sort of fencing with long sticks, common in many primitive societies who dedicate themselves to shepherding.  

But there are other typical events not related to sports. The most important are the "romerias" (country feasts), and Tenerife's Carnival.