Salafranca Festivals
The festivities of Santa Ana have been celebrated in Salafranca since 2001 on the weekend after July 26, the saint’s name day. The popular celebrations take place around the 17th century hermitage of the same name, which was donated by the Sellés family to the town council of Sant Joan d’Alacant, and was restored in the 90s. On the occasion of its inauguration and blessing in 2001, a group of residents of this neighborhood decided to celebrate an annual festival in honor of Santa Ana, thus turning it into the Salafranca festival. That year, for the first time, a pilgrimage was held from the church with the new image of Saint Anne that was carried on small litters to the hermitage, accompanied by many neighbors, music and festive performances. There the hermitage was blessed and then after a mass, a summer refreshment was served to those present while music and typical dances accompanied and enlivened the event.
Since then the festival was established and little by little some events were added such as the sobaquillo dinner or “cabasset”.
Currently, the celebration consists of several events such as the aforementioned dinner on the night before the party, which is attended by neighbors and revelers from Salafranca, Sant Joan and other places and in which there is never a lack of night music to entertain and entertain the attendees. There are also several games for children.
But of course the central event is the Sunday pilgrimage that from the church continues along the cementeri and Serení roads to reach the hermitage with the image of Santa Ana accompanied by music, revelers and neighbors. Once there, and after mass, the summer snack-dinner is served, so suitable to quench the thirst of the suffocating summer heat.
Did you know that...?
Anna is the mother of the Virgin Mary according to the Gospels. Much is unknown about his life but he achieved great devotion in the Christian world. According to tradition, she and her husband, San Joaquín, could not have children, so she promised that if heaven granted her the grace to have children, she would consecrate them to religious life. Finally, the Virgin Mary was born from them, conceived without original sin, according to Christian tradition and the dogma of the Catholic Church.
She is represented as a woman, sometimes of advanced age, holding the hand of the Virgin Mary represented as a girl. Her feast day, July 26, also remembers her husband Saint Joachim. Some commissioners proposed also celebrating San Joaquín and acquired an image of the saint to wear at the festival.