#forcall

Les Rossegades is a tradition celebrated in the Castelló area (in the Valencian Country) on Saint Anthony’s Day. People run through the town’s streets as horses pull on the trees, which in the afternoon will be used to make a bonfire. In the evening, they read the “Publicata”, a series of satyrical verses about Saint Anthony, the town’s current events and the festivity.

People celebrating Sant Antoni (Saint Anthony’s day, popularly known as La Santantonà) in Els Ports, Valencian Country. It is celebrated annually on the closest weekend to the 17th of January.

Celebrated since the Middle Ages, Sant Antoni is celebrated all around the Catalan Countries and some other countries with a Catholic tradition, but it is especially celebrated in the area of Els Ports, where it’s the most important festivity in winter. Each village has its own unique celebrations, but share some main elements which have been preserved since the Middle Ages in a mix of pagan rites with episodes of Christianity. The temptations, the purifying fire and the fight between good and evil are the core of all activities of Sant Antonis.

One shared element in all Santantonades is fire, understood as symbol of purification and renewal of life, burning evil spirits represented by demons. In all town squares, they set up a maio, an enormous construction made with trees and wood, on which are loaded hundreds of pounds of sprouts, forming spectacular huts. These are burned while Botargues or devils dance around.

In many villages, the play “La Vida de Sant Antoni” (“The Life of Saint Anthony”) is represented. It is a dramatisation of the struggle between good and evil, in which Saint Anthony resists many temptations of demons.

The religious origin of the celebration is present in various solemn events such as masses, processions and blessings of animals. There are also fun events and popular representations of tasks as farming, Les Grupes -in which people wearing tradictional clothes ride horses-, dances and parties.

The festivities of Sant Antoni also have the typical pastries. The majorals, people in charge of organising the festivity, are to harvest pumpkins and prepare a jam to fill dough, which is made from flour, oil, sugar and aiguardent (the traditional liquor).

Europe’s oldest bakery/oven still in use is in Forcall (Els Ports, Valencian Country). It has been used since the year 1246 and was used as the town’s public oven until 1993.

It still has the structure of an old Medieval bakery, with two ovens that still work. The house was restored and the oven was stopped being used in 1993, after a new regulation on food safety which doesn’t allow cooking in the same room where clients come in. But one of the ovens is still used to make pastries during Saint Anthony’s festivities.

There are similarily old bakeries in the nearby towns, such as one from 1272 in l’Olocau del Rei and one from the 13th century in Vilafranca.

Forcall, amb la seua santantonada, tornen a demostrar per què és la més potent de la comarca: botargues, Filoseta, cremallers, plaça plena i una foguera que et deixa sense paraules.

I a Morella, campanes, vida del sant, cofraria, música, jotes i contraban: un d’eixos moments que ens recorden que som poble, que ens abracem i que la tradició està ben viva.

Gràcies a totes les persones que ho feu possible, especialment a la cofraria de Morella per l’esforç d’enguany. I a Forcall, un reconeixement ben merescut a Santi Pérez, un gran alcalde que estima i cuida la seua gent i les seues festes.

Bon Sant Antoni i endavant amb Els Ports!