San Blas (St Blaise)

The  patron saint of sore throats on his feast-day (3rd February), as well as the Spanish hot cakes bearing his name, usually abound in the different celebrations which take place. These include the Romería a la Caridad (a festive excursion to the shrine of La C.) in Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca), the remembrance services in Lodosa, Los Arcos and Peralta (Navarre), with a dawn chant to the Saint, the Churchwarden's Feast in Malpartida de Plasencia (Cáceres), and the festival in Miraflores de la Sierra (Madrid).

Further festivals take place the following Sunday in Montiel (Ciudad Real) and Porriño (Pontevedra), the latter on the wastelands of Budiño, where people go to thank St Blaise for any sore throats he has cured. In Burriana (Castellón) there is a wine fountain, whereas in Idiazábal (Guipúzcoa) Basque dances are performed. In Villar del Arzobispo (Valencia) the blessed loaves on St Blaise's Day are shared out not only amongst friends and family, but also domestic animals, to protect them throughout the year. In Montehermoso (Cáceres) the Black Men's Dance (performed by six men with dyed faces and a stick-bearer leading the dance to the sound of the flute and the drum) and all expenses for celebrations are provided by the churchwardens, hence their intermitent appearance.

St Blaise was a doctor and bishop living in Sebaste (Armenia), in the 3rd and 4th centuries. In his striving for perfection he took refuge in a cave near the summit of Mount Argeo. A victim of the generalized persecution of Christians, he acquired his unusual patron-saint status on his way to prison, when he healed a boy who was in agony owing to a fish bone which had stuck in his throat.

The 5th February is one of the few feast-days in which women play the main role, since Saint Agueda is the patron-saint of married women and, above all, of those mothers breast-feeding their children. It should be recalled that this martyr, amongst other horrors she had to face, had her breasts removed.

In Escatrón (Zaragoza) the girls, dressed in beautiful peasant costumes, take part in the blessed loaves procession, carrying them in small baskets on their head. In Miranda del Castañar (Salamanca) it is the wives of the churchwarden --designated to give orders on this day-- who wave the flag, passing it over the heads of all those gathered around them in a large circle. On the 4th, the youths of Vitoria perform St Agueda's Ronda (Circle Dance), and the same day sees the Choirs of St Agueda singing and dancing in the streets of Pamplona. In Zamarramala (Segovia), the Mayoress' Feast is held on the following weekend, as long as the 5th is not a Sunday. Here the main role is played by two married women dressed in the highly colourful Zamarramala costume, assisted by the other townswomen, who rule the roost on this particular day. Finally, a rag doll is burnt, following the reading of a sort of comic will