FEASTS DAYS

Our municipality has a wide and varied holiday program throughout the year. La Virgen del Rosario, Patroness of El Vellón, is her main feast.  It is celebrated the first weekend of October with religious activities (masses and processions), bullfighting activities (running of bulls and bullfights) and recreational activities (competitions, sports championships, night dances in the town square and popular stew). There is also an employer’s feast on February 3, the day of San Blas, when the “Quintos” of the year,  who used to be the youngsters called to join the military service every year, go to the Hermitage of the Saint, located just outside the town on the road to Torrelaguna to bring him in joyful procession to the parish church. This day there is a “verbena”, which is a street party, and the famous San Blas donuts that miraculously cure any sore throat are distributed.

In El Espartal the Patron Saint Feast of Our Lady of Pilar are celebrated on October 12, with religious events (Mass and Procession), crowded sports championships, high-quality theatrical performances, popular stew and night dances in the Plaza. The Feast of San José is also celebrated with religious acts (Mass and Procession) and lively popular dances.

Among the traditional feasts that are still preserved, there is that of May 1 in which the “Quintos” place a May-tree at the door of the church adorning it with a crown of flowers on top. The Feast of Bread and Cheese is celebrated on the Sunday before the Feast of Ascension. It is when San Blas is returned to his hermitage, making a pilgrimage and distributing charity of bread, wine and cheese. San Isidro, May 15, the day that donuts are also auctioned like on the day of San Blas. The Corpus Christi, the day when altars are risen in the streets as the procession passes by. On November 1, All Saints’Night, when groups of friends gather to savor the tasty “puches”, a local pastry. On December 24, Christmas Eve, the “Quintos” usually light a fire and go round the streets of the town asking local residents for some money to spare.