The fiesta of San Ramón.

Mid-day mass at the church is followed by a photo opportunity as so many people are dressed in regional costume, traje regional.

To see the full sized photo, click on it with the left button of the mouse.

To see a couple more photos plus some very short video of this event on YouTube, click HERE.

Lunch is a giant paella for the village in the Plaza Mayor.

Then all the children and their parents go home leaving just the inhabitants of Torre del Compte to get on being a nice quiet, sleepy little village.

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Fiesta, day 1

Another year has gone by very quickly and already it is time for the village of Torre del Compte to celebrate it's fiesta. As usual, it starts with sausages cooked on small open fires in the grounds of the village co-operativa, (where the farmers take their olives for processing from their fields later in the year.)

See the full size photo by clicking on it.

This is now our 5th fiesta in the village and for the first time we had a light rain shower. However, the forecast is for fine weather for the next few days. Getting a little wet wouldn't have put people off though as after having eaten the sausages, everyone visits each peña in order to receive a drink. The only catch is that to get to the next peña, you have to go down the road where the occupants of the houses throw buckets of water at you; some have hosepipes! Great fun!!


A local brass band added to the atmosphere whilst hundreds of people enjoyed their sausages in pieces of bocadillo.

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San Anton!

San Anton is celebrated every year in Torre del Compte by having a bonfire in the Plaza Mayor on the Friday evening, it's just what is needed for a chilly night. The bonfire is massive with olive trees, not branches, being burned.

To see any photo full size just click left on it.

A couple of hundred people from the village including visitors gathered around the bonfire and enjoyed the freshly fried pork bocadillos with wine and this year, with pizza, cake and pieces of chocolate.


Traditionally, a pig is butchered and the various joints are raffled.


The following morning, Saturday, the bonfire is still going.


A mass is held in the church for San Anton then his statue is paraded around the village. To see parts of the procession, follow the link to YouTube below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S1_c-4fixc&feature=channel



The procession is accompanied by a brass band...


...and the same band lead the "devils" to everyone's house...


...where they are given various foods and bottles of wine to take away, later to be auctioned.


Ours is the last house in the village to be visited. This year we had made two Shepherd's Pies for the auction.


Rosi leads the auction, a feat of endurance as it takes over 4 hours for the dishes of food to be sold back to the peñas to be eaten that evening. Our 2 Shepherd's Pies raised 116 euros and 2600 euros was made overall. The funds go towards the organisation and running of village events for the year ahead.


Lola won part of the butchered pig in the raffle - it included the head, trotters and back bone with the tail.


Following tradition, all parts of the pig are eaten apart from the squeak!

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