Marc Ballesté, project manager of the Pyrenees Education and Intangible Heritage Chair, highlighted the importance of safeguarding the festival at the opening conference
The Chair on Education and Intangible Heritage of the Pyrenees participated this weekend in the meeting of the festive fires of the winter solstice in Petrer, a town in the south of Alicante. Within the technical seminar, Marc Ballesté, project manager for the chair, was in charge of holding the opening conference in which he spoke about “The importance of the traditions of festive fires and tools for their safeguarding”.
Petrer hosted for the first time the meeting of the festive fires of the winter solstice, which brought together representatives of eleven Alicante towns that have a shared tradition in the celebration of the festive fires of Christmas. Thus the fallas, fatxos, aixames, atxes and xameles from Beniarrés, Benimassot, Elda, Elche, Gaianes, the Torre de les Mançanes, Onil, Petrer, Relleu, Tibi and Xixona returned to the streets. Within the day, fun-festive activities were held such as a meal among all attendees, talks about the Fallaire traditions of each of the invited populations and a guided visit to the Dámaso Navarro Museum, which was celebrating the first anniversary of its reopening to the new facilities.
The participants in the meeting were also able to carry out a workshop on making fallas, fatxos, aixames and atxes, organized by the representatives of the populations invited to the event. Then the fallas were rolled in the town square accompanied by the residents of the Alicante town. The fact is that the type of falla of these towns is very similar to those of Sant Julià de Cerdanyola and Bagà, which also celebrate their festival on the winter solstice. In the case of the south of Alicante, the falla is made with dry and green esparto, and it is rolled.