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Meat pie (pastís de carn) is a traditional sweet from Alcoi, Central Valencian Country. It's a puff pastry filled with minced pork and pine nuts, and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

The holiday of Moros i cristians ("Moors and Christians") starts with the entrance of both sides to the town. In this video, you can see snippets of both entrances in 2025 in the city of Alcoi, Central Valencian Country.

What are the Moors and Christians holidays?

Moros i cristians is a traditional holiday that commemorates the battles for the control of their respective town in the Middle Ages, when the area was the border between Islamic and Christian kingdoms. It's celebrated in many parts of the Iberian peninsula, most commonly in the Central Valencian Country and some parts of Southern Spain. It's also done in other towns in other parts of the Valencian Country, a few in the Balearic Islands (where it's related to pirate attacks in the towns), and the city of Lleida in Catalonia, among others. Lots of these towns have celebrated this holiday since the 1500s. (Southern Spanish and Portuguese colonialists also took it to the colonies where they settled, and for this reason similar holidays are celebrated in some towns of Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, and the Philippines. But in those cases it's very different because they're not recreating their own hometown's history but a far-away battle which was used as a tool of Christian propaganda and evangelism).

To celebrate this holiday, people from the town get organized in groups, and these groups band together to form the two sides: Moorish and Christian. Each group will have a marching band, people who dress up as that side, and sometimes a few people who represent specific characters from the historical event they're representing or from the legends that are told about it. Each side also has their own songs, played by the musicians, which vary from town to town. All the groups parade around the town as people gather to watch and cheer, and often they recreate a battle.

The holiday is very heart-felt in the area because of the way it relates to the participants' hometown and their ancestors. As you can see, the clothes don't try to be historically-accurate, it's a kind of fantasy recreation where they innovate new clothing styles that are very loosely based on what both sides would have worn in that time, but which values imagination and fantasy.

Moors and Christians in Alcoi

The oldest known written document that talks about this holiday being celebrated in Alcoi the way it's celebrated now dates from the year 1672, though many documents talk about the jousting-like activities and arquebus competitions that were held in Alcoi annually on these days since the 1500s.

The holiday was forbidden by king Philip V between 1707 and 1741 as a punishment against Valencians (Philip V —the king who invaded the Valencian Country, Aragon, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and annexed them into Spain— forbid many of our traditions, cultural practises, and the use of the Catalan-Valencian language in all official settings, imposing the Spanish language and culture instead, together with a strong political and economical oppression by "right of conquest") but it was celebrated again as soon as it was allowed, because it's a very beloved tradition in the town. It has reached us nowadays in this spectacular way. In Alcoi, almost 5,000 people take part in the parades nowadays, organized in 28 groups.

Here, the holiday commemorates the Battle of Alcoi, held between late April and early May of 1276. The area had only been conquered by the Christian Catalan-Aragonese Crown a few decades before when the Moorish troops led by the famous Al-Azraq organized a surprise attack to take back this area. According to the legend, the Moorish troops had almost achieved victory when a miracle happened: Saint George appeared riding his white horse and shot a large cloud of arrows against the Moorish troops, thus giving victory to the Christians. This is the battle in which the famous Al-Azraq was killed.

The holidays start with marching band parades on the days before Saint George (April 23rd). The holiday proper starts with the "Christian entrance", where the groups that represent the Christian side parade in the town, representing the conquest and how the troops were gathered when they heard of the Moorish revolt. The captain is received in the City Hall, where he is given the keys of the castle. In the afternoon, there's the "Moorish entrance", where the groups representing the Moorish side parade in the town symbolizing the arrival of Al-Azraq's troops and their siege of Alcoi. The next day, there are more parades of both sides around the town, a procession in honour of Saint George, and parades at night-time.

On the third day, there is the representation of the battle. First, there's jousting-like games in the town square (which have been celebrated in Alcoi these days since at least the early 1500s). Then, an ambassador of the Moorish side rides a horse to deliver a message to the Christian troops, soon followed by the whole Moorish embassy that offers the Christians a chance to surrender.

Then, the Moorish side fires arquebusses (historical long guns) with firecrackers in them and wins the battle, but it's not over yet because the Christians counterattack, firing arquebusses too and staging a battle to regain the castle.

In the end, the Christian groups win the battle. The day ends with the apparition of Saint George and a procession with a kid dressed as Saint George.

Women's participation

Women were forbidden from taking part in the holiday until recently. A woman was accepted for the first time in 1997, and she paraded with the men in one of the groups, but was not allowed to take part in all the events. The next year, many other women asked to join various groups, too. Many groups first accepted them and the women were ready to parade, but when the day came some groups took it back and didn't allow the women to parade. Women formed the association Associació Fonèvol to fight for women's rights to take part in the holidays, and in 2004 finally the ombudsman declared that women have equal rights to participate. Immediately, hundreds of women joined the groups. They were allowed to dress up and take part in the parades as long as they were accompanied by their husband or father, but they were not allowed to take part in decision-making processes (only men could decide about the clothes they would wear and other matters).

Since the early 2010s, more women have been allowed and even some have been allowed to shoot the arquebusses, but at the same time other groups were still refusing entrance to women. In 2014, a woman was chosen for the first time to be one of the members of the assembly that organizes the holiday. Since then, more women have been accepted in the parades and they have their own clothes. Throughout the 2010s, more men who used to be against women's participation have changed their mind and now accept that women can also take part in their hometown's cultural heritage. However, in 2019 a resolution was passed that forces all women to wear specifically "women's clothing" and forbids them from wearing what's considered "men's clothing" (such as knights clothes), at the same time also making it a rule that men must wear only what's considered "men's clothing".

Moros y Cristianos en Alcoi 2024 1

Colección de fotografías tomadas por el escultor y fotógrafo José Luís Navarro Esteve durante las fiestas de Moros y Cristianos en Alcoi (Alicante) en el año 2024. Primera parte.

La galería con muchas más imágenes y a más calidad está en

Marching bands are a central element of many Valencian festivities. Here's a snippet from the holiday Moros i Cristians in the city of Alcoi, Central Valencian Country.