Festivals in Autumn

Autumn is probably the most expected season of the year since we celebrate our saint days: the Festival of the Virgen in honour of María Inmaculada (Mary Immaculate). We take the Virgin down from the Sanctuary and she stays in Yecla until the following Sunday, nine days after her arrival to the town. In Yecla Christmas doesn’t arrive until we take the Virgin back to the Sanctuary.

Virgen del Castillo Patron Saint's Day Fiesta

This festival is our patron saint days’, which have been declared of National Tourist Interest and a Property of Cultural Interest. Its most remarkable celebrations are the “Alborada”, on the eve of the “Taking down of the Virgin”, when the inhabitants of Yecla wake up by shooting their arquebuses (an old firearm shot by lighting a fuse with gunpowder); “Gachasmigas”, a day during which the participants have a traditional lunch of Yecla; the “Taking down of the Virgin” day, the great day of the Patron saint’s day fiesta, when the Patron saint of Yecla is taken down from the Sanctuary, and the “Flower Offering”, when all the harquebusiers’ squads take part in a parade along the streets bearing flowers to the Patron saint, the Purísima Concepción.