Javea Fiestas - San Antonio Abad

San Antonio Abad - Fiesta Activities

If you ever wanted to get your pet hamster or snake blessed, then this weekend you should head on down to Javea for the Fiesta San Antonio Abad, where San Antonio will be honoured in this traditional fashion.

San Antonio

The Port

The activities begin on Saturday morning (17th January) at about 9:00am with a parade around the streets of the port accompanied by traditional music.  This is followed by mass and then the blessing of the animals.

Old town

In the pueblo, this day is spent preparing for the burning of the pine which occurs in the evening, accompanied by a brass band. Then on Sunday, also in the pueblo, there is a similar type of parade to  that of the previous day in the port, which starts (appropriately enough) in Calle San Antonio.  This culminates in the Plaza de la Constitución, where there will be another animal blessing session, followed by the parading of an image of San Antonio back to the street which bears his name.
There is usually some drinking and eating going on the whole time and it's great fun for all ages. 

Why Animals?

The reason for the blessing of the animals is that San Antonio is the patron saint of animals among many other things.  The reason for the burning of the pine is less clear however.