Fests and traditions

Candelaria en Dos Torres.

Cordoba:

Los Patios is the main meeting of the Cordoba festive May. This festival takes place for twelve days at the beginning of May, when the Patio-Houses of the historic center open their doors and are shared with all the people of Cordoba and visitors.

There are two types of patios; those of a single-family house, which are those where the rooms are distributed around the patio, generally in the center, and that of the tenement house from where the houses are accessed. Pots of flowers such as geraniums, gypsies, jasmine, orange blossom, orange blossom, orchids and carnations fill these corners of Córdoba with their smell and color. In recent years, balconies and bars have also been decorated in the most showy ways.

 

A week before Los Patios, Las Cruces are celebrated, a tradition in which the corners and squares of the city are adorned with striking and colorful crosses covered with flowers. During these days, Córdoba displays all its charm and good atmosphere.

The crosses are raised in the squares, patios, streets and are decorated with floral centers around them, Manila shawls, pendants and other elements of popular folklore.

Los Pedroches:

In Los Pedroches, the pilgrimages of the patrons of dedication of each town or towns are traditional, and some of them are jointly or shared by several of these towns. This is how the Virgen de Luna, the Virgen de Guía, the Virgen de las Cruces are, next to the ruins of a Roman town, also of the virgin of La Alcantarilla.

 

Very traditional are the rites that were celebrated in the past such as La Candelaria day throughout the region, exploited today in the town of Dos-Torres and of strong Celtiberian origin, but turned into a medieval fair.

The festival of "Las Cruces" is also celebrated, as in all of Spain, characteristic of the Mays that are celebrated in many places in Europe. The Cruces de Añora are particulars, as they are very elaborate and have a great tradition. The crosses are typical of all the towns of Los Pedroches

Also traditional are the festivities for each of the saints patrons of each town. Easter that although in its day had something differentiating and associated with Los Pedroches, this has been lost in recent years in pursuit of the popularity that Andalusian Easter, in Los Pedroches Holy Week is also celebrated with intensity, highlighting Easter is in Pozoblanco

Among the current competitions, thematic fairs, such as the Los Pedroches Agro-livestock Fair held in Pozoblanco and the Acorn-fed Iberian Pig Ham Fair held in Villanueva de Córdoba should be highlighted.

Obejo:

As it is the closest town to our farmhouse, in Obejo, we must highlight the Baile de Las Espadas (dance of sword) or Bachimachia, (deformation of ballimachia).

It is dated in Obejo from the 16th century and is celebrated 3 times a year: On the Sunday closest to January 17 (San Antón), the Sunday closest to March 24 (San Benito festival), in the Pilgrimage to the Hermitage del Santo, and the second Saturday of July, on the occasion of the fair and festivities of Obejo.

The sword dance is celebrated in many places in Spain, and other countries in Europe, such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and others such as Bulgaria or Romania. Its surest origin may be the Greek Pyrrhic dances, but also and with less probability it may be Goda dances. The curious thing about this Obejo dance is the large number of dancers who take part in it, there are 32 and the teacher, which implies some difficulty when making the movement of "the rose" or "the slaughter".

Although the name of “ballimachia” is mentioned by Covarrrubias in his “Treasure of the Castilian language”, by Bernardo Aldrete and by Suárez de Salazar, all contemporaries. Everyone agrees that the "ballimachia" was about Greek Pyrrhic dances but it was the last author and referring to ancient customs of Cádiz who best defines this dance as dances from Greece.

The dance could come here after the Reconquest with the Galician repopulation, since in Galicia this sword dance is very widespread. Another origin could be that a priest imported it because sword dances were the only ones allowed to be danced inside churches and hermitages.