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‘The Festivities of the Vera Cruz in May’ (Gollarín, 2024) offers a compilation of the research, analysis and reflection work carried out over several decades on the festivities celebrated in Caravaca around the Sacred Relic. Pedro Ballester Lorca (Totana, 1937-Caravaca de la Cruz, 2017), chaplain-rector of the Basilica Santuario de la Vera Cruz of Caravaca, a position he held from 1973 until his retirement in 2013.
Juan Antonio Sánchez Giménez (Caravaca, 1979), professor of Geography and History and passionate about literature, festivals and the heritage of Caravaca, has been in charge of articulating, organizing and completing all the documentation, which came into his hands by initiative of the Brotherhood of Vera Cruz, so that this publication could see the light.
Gollarín publishes this work, whose rights belong to the Brotherhood of Vera Cruz, in which the manuscript that the much-missed chaplain of the Sanctuary began in the early eighties is completed, compiling the existing material, updating it and adding content, because much of The information was fragmented. The CaixaBank Cultural Space in Caravaca de la Cruz recently hosted the event in which, along with the co-author, the older brother of the Brotherhood, Luis Melgarejo, also participated; the mayor of Caravaca, José Francisco García; Professor Francisco Romero and editor Francisco Marín.
Marín highlighted the “rigorous work of review, conceptualization and design” and added that “it is an enormous work in which he pours his knowledge, his feeling and his deep admiration for the festive event of Caravaca.” Romero indicated that Ballester “was a colleague, a friend and, of course, a reference for everyone; Thanks to him, those of us who have come from abroad were able to understand and love a celebration and get to know this town better; “It not only taught us the historical reason for the holidays, but also the reason for the emotions they arouse.” Melgarejo related that the project was a proposal made by the sacristans of the basilica who shared so many moments with the chaplain. For the councilor, Ballester “made a mark – he stated – that will remain, even if he is no longer here.”
The contents
Sánchez Giménez notes that “Don Pedro began writing this book in 1982 and then structured it into six chapters, although some were very fragmented; I have completed these sections and have added three other chapters, in addition to updating data. «Ballester makes a broad introduction with a tour of the holidays, to reveal some keys for the uninitiated, such as, for example, the difference between dressing up and dressing up; and also shows his determination and concern to maintain the purity and essence of the festivities, an issue on which he insists throughout all the sections.
The first chapter is dedicated to the geographical and historical framework defined by the author as “a land of ocher mountains, hard, with a dangerous and porous border in the face of Islam that has left its mark on the collective psychology of the city.” In the second, the religious origin of the Moors and Christians festival is recorded, with special attention to the ritual of the Blessing of the Waters, popularly known as “the Bath of the Cross.”
The following two chapters are dedicated to the “Caravaca festive event”, constituting a unique and original variant, and what is commemorated with certain times and spaces. “Moors, Christians and Horses of Wine thus gain their meaning, always linked to the rituals of the Holy Cross,” Ballester insists and Sánchez endorses.
The fifth is dedicated to ‘Origins, beginning and development’ and tells chronologically, taking as reference dates such as 1384 (first bath of the Cross), 1722 (testimonies of Father Cuenca about the Wine Bath, root of the celebration of the Horses del Vino), or 1881, the year in which it can be said that the current structure of the festivals was established; As there was little information about the second half of the 19th century, I turned to articles by Gregorio Sánchez Romero and Francisco Fernández García, which opened my curiosity to investigate further what the Moors and Christians were like in this period, finding very interesting descriptions and data. ».
There is another chapter about the Caballos del Vino, about music and Los Gigantes and Tío de la Pita.