Los Finaos: chestnuts and remembrance in the Canary Islands
On the last night of October, Canarian villages roast chestnuts, and it has nothing to do with pumpkins. This is the Finaos, the Canarian evening of remembering the dead, which the Canary Islands Government's educational material places between 31 October and 2 November, across the whole archipelago.
If you are here at this time in 2026, two practical things are worth knowing in advance. This year the All Saints' public holiday moves to Monday 2 November, so there will be a three-day weekend: Saturday 31 October, Sunday 1 November, Monday 2 November. And on Sunday 1 November most shops will be closed. You will find the details at the end of the article. Our article on Tenerife's festivals already mentioned the Finaos in a single sentence: Festivals and events in Tenerife. Here we unpack what lies behind the chestnuts.
What the Finaos is
If you walk through a Canarian town at the end of October, you will see jack-o'-lanterns, children in costumes and posters for Halloween parties. That is the top layer.
Underneath is an older evening, and it did not happen in the street but in the kitchen.
The word is the popular Canarian form of "finados". A finado is a dead person, and the Noche de Finados is the evening of remembering the dead. According to the government's educational material, in many places it was held on 31 October. The Canary Islands Government describes it as one of the oldest celebrations in the archipelago, a day of gathering, memory and respect, and places its roots in the villages, among people who lived from farming and livestock.
A glass of oil for every one of the dead
At nightfall the churches rang the toque de ánimas, the bell for the souls. It was the signal for everyone to go home, even the children at play. At home a small lamp was lit for every family member who had died: it burned in oil, inside a glass. If there was a photograph of the dead person, a candle or an oil lamp was lit next to it, in a corner of the house.
Usually the oldest woman of the house told the story of the person's life, and the family's evening prayer gave special thought to the souls of the dead. But it was a working evening too: the family sat together shelling corn (millo), cracking walnuts and peeling chestnuts.
The next day, 1 November, families went to the cemetery early in the morning to clean the graves and decorate them with flowers. Until the middle of the 20th century, wreaths, bouquets, chrysanthemums and geraniums were placed on the niche graves and the graves in the ground, with small candles beside them.
Why chestnuts
The government's educational booklet gives a simple answer: people ate chestnuts, walnuts, almonds and apples because that is what was harvested that month. Of these, the chestnut matters most today. Against the cold they drank something sweet, aniseed liqueur (anís) or sweet wine.
The Canarian public broadcaster, RTVC, also lists roast apples, dried figs, pastries and ron miel (honey rum), and one of the government's educational blogs mentions gofio amasado (kneaded gofio) as well. From some villages in the midlands there are even memories of an animal being slaughtered on this day, usually a pig.
The loveliest name comes from Gran Canaria, from Valleseco: the older people there do not call 31 October Finados but "tostado de castañas", the chestnut roasting. If you like words, millo and gofio also appear in our Canarian dictionary for tourists, and we wrote about the islands' cooking here: Canarian food: what to eat in Tenerife.
Where the sources disagree
In Catholic teaching, the ánimas are the souls waiting in purgatory. According to the government's educational guide, the devotion to them grew stronger after the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant denial of purgatory, and it probably took root in the Canary Islands between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.
The parishes had brotherhoods of the souls, and linked to them were the ranchos de ánimas: groups of musicians and singers who asked God to help the dead. Three such ranchos still exist on Gran Canaria, in Arbejales (Teror), La Aldea and Valsequillo.
When they went out, though, we do not know for sure, and the sources contradict each other.
The Canary Islands Government's educational guide explicitly calls it a cliché (tópico) to link the ranchos to the Finaos. In its view they may have gone out at this time in the past too, but for many years now they have gone out from mid-December. One of the educational booklets, citing FEDAC, places their rounds from December to February.
A 2018 blog post by the library of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) says they went round the villages from All Saints' Day until 2 February, Candlemas.
The Cabildo of Gran Canaria itself invited the Teror and Valsequillo ranchos to its Finaos celebration in 2017, at the Finca de Osorio.
Which was the older practice cannot be settled from today's sources, so we will not settle it for you either.
Pan por Dios, santitos and Halloween
The Finaos has more than one face on the islands. According to the ULPGC library's blog, the celebration began with the young people, who went from house to house asking for "los santos" and were given almonds, chestnuts or figs. In the north of Tenerife, in San Juan de la Rambla, the "Pan por Dios" (bread for God's sake) tradition has children walking the streets on 1 November, asking for sweets and fruit from house to house. The children who go round with wicker baskets are called "santitos", and the neighbours get their gifts ready the day before. On Fuerteventura people sing and pray on the night of the Finaos.
And Halloween? According to the government's educational booklet, the two sometimes live side by side and sometimes stand against each other, and in recent years the Finaos has come back as a celebration of Canarian identity. It has lost its old religious meaning by now. It has also moved from the villages to the towns: today it means parrandas, bailes de taifas (folk dance parties), traditional dress and chestnuts and pine cones roasted in squares and streets. La Laguna put it simply in 2025: "No se trata de elegir", there is no need to choose. We wrote more about the vocabulary of Canarian fiestas here: Canarian fiestas and romerías.
Where the dead rest in the sand
In 2025, ahead of the Finaos, the Canary Islands Government's culture department, the Dirección General de Cultura y Patrimonio Cultural, made two films of roughly a quarter of an hour each freely available on its YouTube channel, about two historic cemeteries: Chipude on La Gomera and Cofete on Fuerteventura.
In Cofete the dead were buried between sand and stones, with wooden crosses. The cemetery lies next to Playa de Cofete. In Chipude the film also shows the tradition of the "Baile de los muertos", the dance of the dead, which lived on well into the 20th century. In popular belief, children could communicate with the other world, so when a child died the community held a wake with chácaras (Canarian castanets), drums and ballads, so that the neighbours could send messages to their own dead.
These places are not a stage set. If you pass a cemetery in the first days of November, remember that by tradition these are the days for tidying the graves and bringing flowers. In the square the chestnuts are a celebration; inside the cemetery gate, it is remembrance.
At its heart, the Finaos was a glass filled with oil, one for each of the dead. What is it that means the same thing in your own family?
Public holiday and opening hours in 2026
Public holiday: in the Canary Islands' official 2026 calendar of public holidays, All Saints' Day falls on Monday 2 November, because 1 November is a Sunday. That makes a three-day weekend, from 31 October to 2 November.
Monday 2 November: an authorised opening day for shops on all seven islands, in Tenerife also in Granadilla de Abona.
Sunday 1 November: it is not on any of the island lists, so shops that do not have free opening hours will be closed.
What may still open on Sunday: under the government's general rule, pastry shops, bakeries, ready-meal shops, newsagents, drinks shops, petrol stations, florists, shops at ports and airports, shops of up to 300 square metres that do not belong to a retail group, and shops in designated tourist zones. This is a general rule, not a list of shops: if you definitely want to go somewhere, check beforehand.
Cemeteries: town councils often announce special opening hours for these days. You will find the exact times on the municipality's website.
Safety: the autumn campaign of 112 Canarias gives specific advice for the night of the Finaos and Halloween.
We gathered everything else about October, from the weather to the long weekends, here: Canary Islands in October: what to expect.
Where to see it in 2026
Last year most municipalities published their Finaos programme in the second half of October, so on 5 October, when we wrote this, there were still few confirmed dates for 2026. Here is what has an official source or is already in our events guide:
Haría, Lanzarote, Thursday 29 October: "Noche de finados", a theatrical walk by Actúa Teatro, organised by the Cabildo de Lanzarote, free entry. It brings back Canarian legends, rituals and traditions connected with the dead, and the audience takes part in the scenes.
Arona, Tenerife, 29 October: "Ánimas" by the Pieles company, in our events guide.
Candelaria, Tenerife: a book launch on 21 October ("Finados, la cultura de la ausencia"), and a Finaos evening on the Plaza de Santa Ana on 31 October (in our events guide).
El Sauzal, Tenerife, Monday 2 November, 19:00: "Famtàstic, Noche de Finados" at the Teatro El Sauzal, in our events guide.
Telde, Gran Canaria: "La Noche de Finaos" is listed in the town's autumn cultural programme, but the date and venue have not been published yet.
We keep updating the other municipalities' programmes in our events guide. And if you are curious about the rest of November: in the Canarian wine regions it is the month of the new wine, which we wrote about here: Canary Islands grape harvest: a wine guide.
Sources: Canary Islands Government, education department (Programa Enseñas): Los Finados y el culto a la muerte (2022) and the Finados educational booklets (2024, 2025); Canary Islands Government, CEP Norte de Tenerife educational blog; Canary Islands Government, Dirección General de Cultura y Patrimonio Cultural (Chipude and Cofete, 2025); 112 Canarias autumn campaign; BOC: the decree on the 2026 public holidays, the resolution on the 2026 Sunday and holiday opening days, and the Granadilla de Abona amendment; Canary Islands Government, retail FAQ; Diario de Avisos; RTVC; ULPGC Library (2018); Cabildo de Gran Canaria (2017); La Laguna town council (2025); Cultura Lanzarote (Cabildo de Lanzarote); Telde town council; Valsequillo town council (2025).
Cover photo (cropped): the Santa Lastenia cemetery in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 1 November 2010. Mataparda, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
