MOORS AND CHRISTIANS FESTIVAL
Another popular festivity of the province is the one of Moors and Christians, which is carried out in five areas of the city, on different dates. It is a spectacular staging of the reconquest of the lands of the province from the Arabs, accompanied by parades full of life and color. The most popular parade, held on the central city streets on the 6th of December is held in honor of the patron of Alicante: Saint Nicolas.
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Moors and Christians Festival
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Location
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Dates
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ALICANTE
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December 6th
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Palamó (Villafranqueza)
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March
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San Blas
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second week of July
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Rebolledo
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July
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Hillock neighbourhood
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August 12th
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José Antonio
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August
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Moors and Christians is one of the most genuine celebrations within the broad and rich compendium of festive celebrations and traditions rooted throughout Spain. This festival has a deeply religious origin and basis, which has been enriched with a recreational twist given by the festivity. However, it is the theatrical and representative component of history which makes it unique. The Muslims invaded and dominated the Iberian Peninsula for several hundred years leaving their mark on the Spanish medieval society, which did not end with the reconquest of the Christian kingdoms in the late fifteenth century.
Over the centuries, those who celebrated Moors and Christians enriched and shaped this historical representation adapting it to local historic or socially relevant events, such as the campaigns against the Turkish or Berber pirates in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on the coasts of Valencia or the capture of Tetúan by the Spanish army in the mid-nineteenth century. This fact meant the revival of the historical and cultural relationship with the Arab world, leading to a rebirth of different and interesting new traditions and customs related to the festival that contributed to its further expansion throughout the Spanish territory, being increasingly seen as a national cultural celebration.
However, it was probably in the twentieth century when the feast experienced its greatest expansion, especially after the Civil War. Geographic expansion and imitation of similar festival models will make some of the most traditional populations strengthen as national and even international benchmark.
PRACTICAL GUIDE
HISTORY
LOCAL FESTIVALS
WEATHER
NEWS
