Celebrations

The Patron Celebrations of Cájar are celebrated since the XVIII century. Its wide festive program is made up of all type of acts directed to kids and adults, of which we emphasized next the most significant ones. The night of farolillos of San Francisco, is a tradition that goes back several centuries, where the protagonists are children and youngsters. It consists on hollowing and draining melons leaving only the rind. Once it is dried they cut figures relative to the sun and the moon, and they put candles inside obtaining therefore the farolillo. After, the young people march in procession around the streets of the town. The celebrations begin with a parade in which they take out in procession a tarasca called Carmela la Sedas. It wears an dress imported from the Moorish markets and rides a gigantic silk worm. It is accompanied by ten cabezudos that represent popular characters, and an historical retinue that makes reference to the Moorish past of Cájar. The origin of Carmela la Sedas is located at Moorish times when Cájar was a place of silk production, and the fable says that she was the daughter of a great silk manufacturer of the town.

The religious program of the celebrations have a Rosario of the Aurora very popular. There is a main mass and procession of the patron of Cájar, San Francisco de Asis, accompanied by the carving of the Virgin of the Rosary, work of Agustín de Vera (1720-1730).