The supramunicipal entity has approved by Presidential Decree the recovery of traditional holidays in its work calendar with a clear intention to vindicate idiosyncratic customs and popular festivals of a regional nature.
On Monday, March 4, a meeting took place between the technical team and the Presidency and the Secretary of the Commonwealth, in which, among other points to be discussed, local holidays that would affect the work calendar of the entity and its employees were agreed upon. workers.
"This is a demand from the technical team that had been fighting for the idea for a few years until it finally became a reality," explained Ferrús, the president of the regional entity, "and that, at the end of the day, has a sense given that, regardless of the physical location that the headquarters occupy, we always work transversally and with a clear regional vision, therefore local holidays had to also be aligned with this way of working, marking on the calendar holidays that "are common and idiosyncratic to the vast majority of the towns of the Marina Alta and also throughout the Valencian Country."
The Presidential Decree states that the new calendar has taken into account the traditional holidays common in the Marina Alta region in order to vindicate these festivals with motivated historical roots and medieval origins. Hence From now on it will be a holiday: April 8, Sant Vicent Monday and December 26, the second day of Christmas, for MACMA workers.
Likewise, June 24, San Juan, will be a non-recoverable holiday this year 2024, given that we are in a leap year and work was done on February 29, counting this as the returnable day established by the GVA guideline.
Thus, the work calendar of the regional entity will feature the celebration of three festivals in 2024. Three festivals of medieval origin, common throughout the territory and that in recent years have begun to be in danger of disappearing.
- Saint Vincent's Monday: Next Monday, April 8, the headquarters will be closed for
celebrate this holiday, also known as Second Easter Monday and which has its origins in the 16th century. Currently, Saint Vicent Ferrer is the patron saint of all Valencian women. Popularly known for Saint Vincent of the little finger, the universal Valencian saint par excellence, a well-known theologian and playwright famous for being so assertive in his speeches that even legend says that he made himself understood in Valencian regardless of which country he ascended to the pulpit. His sermons traveled throughout much of Europe and Castilian and strange is the Valencian town through which he did not pass on some occasion on the back of his donkey. La Marina is no exception and its presence can be traced in municipalities such as Pego, where a ceramic altarpiece is preserved in a woman's faith, the Font Santa hermitage in Teulada, where she performed a miracle, and several visits to the town, since His sister Constanza lived there to be married to a sparrow. It is a festival that formerly closed all the Easter celebrations in our towns, in which mona or sponge cake was also eaten in some towns, and which is preserved in school calendars. Two towns in the Marina Alta have him as their patron saint and celebrate festivals: l'Atzúbia with the church dedicated to him and Teulada, without forgetting that there is a hermitage at Pedramala de Benissa or ceramic altarpieces in other towns such as Murla, Pego, etc. In addition to the Commonwealth, other town councils have chosen this day as one of their local holidays, XNUMX are the towns that will celebrate Saint Vicent: L'Atzúbia, Beniarbeig, Benidoleig, Castell de Castells, Jesús Pobre, Gata de Gorgos, Jávea, Parcent, the Ràfol d'Almúnia, Teulada, Tormos, the Vall d'Ebo, Vall de Gallinera, the Vall de Laguar, the Verger and els Poblets. - Saint john's day: Also Monday, June 24, will be a non-recoverable holiday.
Commonwealth for an exchange for February 29 and that has also allowed us to mark a traditional Valencian enjarje al fuego festival. And this festival also has a strong link in the traditional agricultural calendar that marks a seasonal change and in which the purifying fire marks the beginning of an astrological cycle, summer. It is one of the Valencian festivals linked to fire such as San Antonio (enjarje at the rest of the countryside in the heart of winter) or San José (enjarje at the beginning of spring). The party is celebrated
with the magical night of Saint John, where the groups get together to celebrate at the sea, where bonfires are made and in some town like Jávea chapels of Saint John are made to later burn at the bonfires with a flower known as vidriella or chaplet of San Juan. A time in which many families take the opportunity to collect St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) and make the renowned pericó oil, sometimes oil or St. John's wort oil, with many medicinal properties (antidepressant, healing, etc.) and other magical properties. like scaring off evil spirits or fighting spells. - Second day of Christmas: The calendar of chosen holidays will close on December 26, also known as Saint Stephen's Day in Catalonia or the half-party in the Islands. A festival of Carolingian origin (XNUMXth century) and implemented in the time of James I in all of his kingdoms. It still persists today in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Valencia and Aragon, although it is drastically decreasing, since it is only a holiday in those towns that mark it as their own local holiday. In the Marina Alta, a total of seven municipalities refuse to lose this festivity that is deeply rooted in the region, since on Nadal Day it was eaten at the mother's family's house and on the second day of Christmas at the paternal family's house, although in many houses the custom has been modernized and is alternating in the family calendar. The towns that have maintained this festival of medieval origin are Beniarbeig, Pego, Orba, Parcent, Sagra, Vall de Gallinera and Vall de Laguar.
