Program

For San Blas it is customary to light lights the day before, having lost the custom of playing the flag in front of the saint, when he is carried in procession. Whoever performed these peculiar juggling games with the flag did so with the pretense that it would remain, after precise and showy movements, fully wrapped around the mast, concluding with a cheer to San Blas, chanted by all those present.

That day the traditional donuts of the saint are distributed, which, according to popular sentiment, have the power to free all those who eat them from throat ailments for the following year. Very curious is the secular rivalry between La Puerta and Beas for the possession of the image of San Blas. According to tradition, it was found on February 10, 1565 by Juan José Sánchez, a native of Beas, and by Antonio Ramírez, a native of La Puerta. The first claimed it for his people because it was he who touched her before, while the second maintained that it was for his own because it was found in his term.

This gave rise to not a few rituals and disputes, being very peculiar, once the image was located in La Puerta, that of the obligation of the so-called commissioners of the party, from both towns, to deliver to the mayordomos who organized it each year a load of wine, bread and meat to do charity, two bushels of flour to make fritters, and another three of roasted chickpeas to be distributed among all attendees.

With the passage of time, other festive elements have been joining the ritual of San Blas, closely related to the festival of the Purification of Mary - on February 2 -, which precedes it, as is the much gunpowder spent to make the celebration a real din.

Another custom, now disappeared, was on the eve of San Antón to bless the "charity" or bread that had to be given to the poor and to light bonfires in honor of the saint.

That day the children walked the streets of the town asking house to house for the “sanantón” –as a last Christmas bonus–, making themselves known by touching bells, or hitting pans or other kitchen utensils that could produce noise. With the roar of this monumental bell, the saint was accompanied in procession to his hermitage.