It is usually celebrated the weekend after the saint's feast day, when it does not coincide with the date, January 16. The highlight of the festival is the bonfire, around which all the events that are held revolve. The party begins on Saturday morning, the attendees go to the house of one of the foremen where they are offered "barreja" and roll. Throughout the morning, they go to the place indicated by the foremen to cut down the trees and make firewood. Subsequently, the "róssecs" will be loaded and entered the village, from which the bonfire will be formed and the animals will be blessed.
As tradition dictates, coinciding with Carnival, Benassal celebrates the Garlic Festival. This celebration commemorates when the town's travellers and merchants, known as 'traginers' returned to the municipality on Carnival afternoon. Currently, the celebrations have reduced their duration, from three days to one day, but they still keep all the essence and meaning of the date.
Thus, the municipality remembers the life of its ancestors on a special day. The day begins with a lunch based on 'pastissos' and 'barreja'. At lunchtime, you cannot miss the typical dish of this date so marked in the Benasal calendar: Garlic. This dish is a stir-fry of garlic, cod and egg, mixed with bread and soaked in wine.
When it gets dark, the entrance of the muleteer who walks through the main streets of the municipality is celebrated. This character, dressed as in the past, represents the person who, riding a horse or a mare, led the entrance to the town of the merchants with their new products. Then, the 'tea', as pine wood is known, is lit and the "ball Pla" is danced in the square. The day ends with a popular festival.
On Easter Monday of Pentecost the pilgrimage of Sant Cristòfol is celebrated. The residents of the municipality travel on foot to the hermitage, at an altitude of 1,111 meters, where mass is officiated, the gozos are sung and the traditional "prima" is distributed, flour cakes that are transported by a decorated herd of animals. It is traditional to have a picnic in the surroundings where there is no shortage of "tombet", a typical dish of the town.
The patron saint festivities are celebrated, from the last weekend of August, in honour of Sant Cristòfol and Sant Roc. Different cultural, sports, festive and bullfighting activities are carried out in them. From the typical "ball pla", to exhibitions, concerts, open-air dances, costume balls, races, parades, sports championships, street bulls and bulls from the square. There is also the traditional pilgrimage to the hermitage of Sant Roc, where the Eucharist is celebrated.
Benassal is a town very famous for its excellent mineral-medicinal water and for its interesting historical and cultural heritage.
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