Ontinyent Fiestas and Festivals
It is the tradition of festivals and fiestas which really makes Ontinyent special. Most months one parish or another in the City will celebrate their Saints Day, with street parties, fireworks and music. And the whole City takes to the streets for the big events.
Sant Antoni Sant Antoni
17 de Enero / 17 January
The festivities dedicated to San Antonio Abad or Sant Antoni del porquet are organised by els llumeners. The chronicles point to the birth of these festivities coinciding with the birth of the neighbourhood that has the same name, at the end of the XVIII century. The festive program offers the traditional burning of bonfires, the celebration of the porrat and the popular dansá. Animals acquire a special prominence with their being blessed and the raffling of a pig.
Semana Santa / Easter Week
The religious acts organised on the occasion of Easter Week take a special relevancy in Ontinyent for the solemnity and the fervour with which the inhabitants live through each of the processions, Masses or benedictions that are celebrated. The most relevant processions are the Encuentro Doloroso and the Santo Entierro, which are celebrated on Holy Friday. The very emotive Procesión del Silencio is held at night in the Medieval neighbourhood, La Vila, which is illuminated only by the light of candles and processional torches.
Corpus Christi
The Day of the Corpus is celebrated in Ontinyent with the celebration of different religious acts such as the solemn Mass, El volteo de las campanasa "roll over" of the church bells and the procession. One of the most traditional acts kept by the city is the popular parade of Gegants i cabets. Standing out is the colour and the genuine traditional music of the processional dances, originating from the XVIII century: Gegants, Cabets, Arquets, Cavallets and Veta.
Giants and Big-heads.
Another of the most impressive fiestas are the Giants and Big-heads that they go out twice a year to delight young and old. They perform their dances, usually before the procession of the Corpus Christi, in June.
Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos - 24 de Agosto
Moors and Christians August 24
Ontinyent celebrates its Moors and Christians Festivals each year towards the end of the month of August. Since the year 1860, the city has been commemorating the Christian conquest of the town founded by Jaime I in the c.XIII and the battles against the Moorish troops. These Festivals, which have been declared to be of Tourist Interest, are celebrated in honour of the Most Holy Christ in Agony, religious symbol of great devotion. Each month of August, the “morenet” (as it is popularly known) is brought down from the chapel of Santa Ana to the church of San Carlos in one of the most significant and surely the most authentic ceremonies of the festivities: “La Baixà”.
The Moorish and Christian ranks advance through the streets of the city to the sound of the kettledrums and flutes, dressed up in very beautiful and colourful costumes, representing the entry of the troops into the city. This ceremony and the one referred to as the Ambassadors are the most massively attended of the week-long festival. More than 6,000 people participate in the Entry, including participants, musical bands and choreography groups.
The ceremony of the Ambassadors signifies the dramatization of the history of the city with the mock battle between the ambassadors of the two sides, at the foot of the castle, symbol of the city of Ontinyent.
Squares, ballets, trappings, horses, camels, dromedaries ... all accompanied by brass bands and that will add nearly 10,000 people take to the streets of Ontinyent
La Fira - 18 de Noviembre
The Fair - November 18
The fair is known as the local festivity Ontinyente enjoyed in November. Once was an agricultural fair, but its evolution has led it to be fair based on attractions and games booths or huts. The Fair is held the weekend of the third Sunday of November, from Saturday to Monday, this is one of the two local holidays, but for a few weeks before and some after the attractions are located on the campus qualified to do so.
La Purisima - 8 de Diciembre / December 8
With a long calendar of acts between November and December, the La Purísima festivities have a tradition that has been kept from the XVII century. The festivities are proceeded by the Heralds of the Virgen de Plata, els Angelets, personified by children voces blancas, upon floats, which cross the principal streets announcing the proximity of the festivities. The Cant dels Angelets is one of the treasures of old Valencian music that dates back to 1662.
One of the most popular acts is the Bou en corda, celebrated the weekend before the main holiday La Purísima. Also, with a marked popular flavour, there are the traditional dances, the Gegants, Cabets, Arquets, Cavallets and Veta, which are danced in the streets of the town on the eve of the main formalities.
January
Cavalcade of Kings
Sant Antoni Abat
February
Candelària
Halfway point between Moors and Christians festival
Carnival
March
Lent
Sant Josep
Fallas
April
Holy Week
Combregats procession
May
Communions
Santa Rita
June
Corpus Christi
Sant Joan
Fiesta of the Cúgol
Sant Pere de Verona
July
Sant Cristòfol
Romeria to Sant Esteve
August
Moors and Christians festival
September
Pujada del Crist
Romeria d’Agres
Festa del Camí dels Carros
Festa del barri de Sant Rafael
October
Festa del barri del Llombo
Day of Valencia
Parade of the Gigants and Cabets
November
Halloween
Santa Cecília
The Fair
December
The bull run
The Puríssima
Christmas
Dia dels Innocents
L’Home dels Nassos
