Fiesta de la Cruz

Description

The Fiesta de la Cruz includes a religious element: a procession out to the fields with Nuestro Padre Jesús, cross on his shoulder, sponsored by his brotherhood, who hold a communal meal after the procession that grows larger every year, as each successive Hermano Mayor tries to outdo the previous year's celebration.

Alongside this, there is another, pagan festival known as "Los Tíos de Ricia", both held on 3 May. This second festival involves decorating the streets of Jimena with straw figures made by residents by stuffing clothing with straw, topped with a ceramic pot for a head and a pepper or chilli, depending on what's to hand, placed at the crotch. These figures, it is said, represent the "straw men" that tax collectors found when they came to collect tithes, and, as the popular saying goes, they had to leave "like Morón's rooster": without feathers and still crowing. A competition is held in which the prize goes not to the most beautiful cross but to the most convincing "tío de ricia" — not for the pepper or chilli, but for the scene it depicts. This festival has grown considerably in recent years.