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Dominicans welcome the New Year with an exuberant open-air concert on the riverside Avenida Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó, Santo Domingo, where some of the country’s top bands perform. Other towns and villages hold smaller-scale but equally loud outdoor fiestas.

The big present-giving day is a crucial part of the extended Christmas–New Year holiday season. In San Pedro de Macorís, some of the town’s millionaire baseball stars traditionally hand out bats, balls, and gloves to kids.

The annual pilgrimage to the modern concrete basilica of Higüey brings thousands of Dominicans together in prayer to the nation’s patron saint, followed by a long party. Services and vigils are held across the country, but the Higüey gathering is the most impressive expression of an African-influenced Catholic faith.

Every Dominican village, town, and city organizes some sort of event in the last week of February. La Vega is famous for its devil-like Carnival masks, while the northern city of Monte Cristi (see Parque Nacional Monte Cristi) witnesses boisterous street battles between rival factions.

The Carnival period reaches an ear-splitting climax in Santo Domingo with a parade of costumes and bands along the Malecón. This also marks the anniversary of the country’s independence from Haitian occupation.

As in all Latin countries, Semana Santa is the year’s most important religious period, and all activity grinds to a halt as Dominicans go to church or parties or both. The Catholic celebrations are paralleled by African-influenced vodu (voodoo) ceremonies near the border and in the sugar plantations where Haitian migrants live.

The latter part of the month witnesses a spectacular showcase of Dominican musical talent, as the seafront Malecón in Santo Domingo hosts a series of concerts by household names and newcomers alike.

The grandiose Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración is the scene of a huge party to commemorate the country’s “second independence” from Spain in 1865 after a guerrilla struggle that started in Santiago (see Santiago). Another celebration, with plenty of music, takes place in Santo Domingo’s beautiful Plaza España.

In the third week in October, the northern port of Puerto Plata hosts a week-long celebration of merengue talent. Most of the action takes place on the long and normally rather rundown Malecón, but at this time of year the place comes to life, with bands performing and countless outdoor bars.

Both Catholics and followers of vodu celebrate the Day of the Dead, when, as elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean, families visit cemeteries to commune with the deceased, and take small offerings such as flowers and food. This ritual is taken most seriously in the areas near the Haitian border.