San Vicente Ferrer - Fiesta in Valencia
(Monday 1 week after Easter: 16th April in 2007)

What it is about

San Vicente Ferrer is another patron saint, this time of the Valencian Community. He was less of a typical church figure and more of a politician and a XIV century intellectual, well known for his influence in the Papal elections. He is also known as one of the most-productive Catholic miracle-makers, and this aspect gets the most emphasis during the fiesta.

Midday - Offer of the Flowers
No fiesta in Valencia happens without lots of flowers. Today they will be brought to the home of San Vicente and beautifully arranged outside into an altar with the saint's portrait. The actual ceremony will go on from midday onwards, if you come you can enjoy the fiesta buzz and the atmosphere. If not, at least do come later to marvel at the completed flower job. See location above.

19.00pm - Official Procession
This procession is not great and can be missed, but if you have nothing else to do, why not... Various religious associations will march with standards from the Cathedral to the home of San Vicente. There will be a few traditional costumes and kids dressed up in medieval wear, but generally it is quite bleak and uneventful for a fiesta. At the end of the procession you will see the main city image (statue) of San Vicente carried on the shoulders of believers.
Length: 1.5 hours, Route: View Map

All day - The Altars
This is the most entertaining part of the fiesta. Over the weekend prior to Monday 13 street altars will be constructed in the city. They are all different and gorgeous, well worth seeing. These altars are actually a theatre stage: closer to the evening they will all display plays by children under 13 years old. The plays will feature episodes of San Vicente's many miracles (in Valenciano, unfortunately). Boring? Far from it! Valencian kids are born for stage and you may find yourself laughing all day long without understanding a word.

The exact times of the plays vary from year to year, and are hard to find out - unless you ask at the altars themselves. The plays do seem to occur mostly between 5 and 7pm, and then after 9pm (after the Official Procession)