#bocairent

Bocairent, Valencian Country.

People in the town of Bocairent (Central Valencian Country) dancing during the festivities of Saint Augustine. This festivity is celebrated annually between the 15th and 28th of August with dancing every day.

Bocairent has kept the dances, music and clothes for centuries, and the festivity is still very popular. While the holiday proper is between the 22nd and 27th, leading up to Saint Agustine's day on the 28th, the previous week is already active with the "little dances" (dansetes) seen as a kind of rehearsal.

De Salses a Guardamar i de Fraga a l’Alguer: les comarques de parla catalana una a una. 66/88: la Vall d'Albaida (Central Valencian Country).

La Vall d'Albaida (Albaida Valley) is a landlocked shire whose capital city is Ontinyent.

This shire is known for its beautiful nature and historical towns. Surrounded by the Mariola mountain range and crossed by two rivers and many streams, the landscape creates many peaceful corners, and natural swimming pools.

The county also has a number of archaeological sites from many different time periods since Prehistory onwards. Among them, there are the mysterious series of cavities and tunnels excavated in the cliffs, the largest of which is the Covetes dels Moros near Bocairent. Even though it's difficult to know when they were made because no artifacts nor inscriptions have been found in them, studies show that it's most likely that they were made in the 10th or 11th centuries (Islamic period in the Middle Ages) and used as a grain storage. Similar structures exist for this purpose in Northern Africa, so it could have been made by Amazigh people who moved here with the Islamic conquest. Another theory (which is less likely) would link it to the Visigothic (7th-8th centuries) hermit burials nearby and consider that each cave would be a burial for a hermit form this community.

The bell ringers from Albaida have been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of "Manual Bell Ringing", which recognizes the long history of this knowledge and its importance as a tool of communication, music, and its role in festivities in the Iberian peninsula and Italy. In Albaida, they have been ringing the bells manually every day since the Catalan conquest in the 13th century, and passing down the knowledge from generation to generation ever since.

Details of Bocairent, Central Valencian Country.