On San Blas's day, it is customary to light bonfires the night before, although the tradition of “playing the flag” in front of the saint as he is carried in procession has been lost. Whoever performed these distinctive flag-juggling moves aimed, after precise and eye-catching movements, to end with the flag fully wound around the pole, finishing with cheers for San Blas, echoed by everyone present.

On this day, the saint's traditional rosquillas are handed out, believed by popular tradition to protect anyone who eats them from throat ailments for the following year. A rather curious feature is the long-standing rivalry between La Puerta and Beas over possession of the image of San Blas. Tradition holds that it was found on 10 February 1565 by farmhands Juan José Sánchez, from Beas, and Antonio Ramírez, from La Puerta. The former claimed it for his town, having touched it first, while the latter maintained it belonged to his, since it had been found within his town's boundaries.

This gave rise to numerous rituals and disputes; one rather peculiar custom, once the image was settled in La Puerta, was the obligation of the so-called festival commissioners from both towns to provide the stewards organising the festival each year with a supply of wine, bread and meat for charitable distribution, two “celemines” of flour to make buñuelos, and a further three of toasted chickpeas to be handed out among all those attending.

Over time, other festive elements have been added to the ritual of San Blas, closely linked to the feast of the Purification of Mary — 2 February — which precedes it, such as the large amount of gunpowder used to make the celebration a truly thunderous affair.

Another custom, now vanished, was to bless the “caridad”, or bread to be given to the poor, on the eve of San Antón, and to light bonfires in the saint's honour.

On that day, children would go from house to house around the town asking for the “sanantón” — a kind of final Christmas gift — making themselves heard by ringing cowbells or banging frying pans and other kitchen utensils that could make noise. The saint was accompanied in procession to his hermitage amid the din of this monumental “cencerrada”.

He is the patron saint of Frailes and, therefore, a local festival day. His hermitage is located at Las Eras del Mecedero, and every 29 June, with great solemnity, Mass is celebrated in the morning, sheltered in the shade of the nearby walnut trees.

In the afternoon, a procession is held, and once it ends, an open-air dance takes place, with young and old alike joining together in rhythmic movement.

Since 1779, Frailes has had a Brotherhood of the Holy Sacrament, and although with ups and downs, celebrated with greater or lesser splendour, the feast of the Day of the Lord has been held without interruption; in recent years, however, the celebration has been taking on a splendour well worth coming to see.

The streets along which the Monstrance passes are carefully decorated. From the night before, residents take part in preparing the decorations for façades and balconies, hanging bedspreads, mantillas and shawls.

As the saying goes: 'Santa Lucía shortens the night and lengthens the days'. And that's exactly what happens as winter sets in, when the light of the Syracusan saint begins to shine.

Although this festival has been celebrated since ancient times, it gradually faded away, as the olive harvest kept people too busy, and the patron saint's celebration stopped being held.

In the 1960s, a group of people from Frailes, led by Luis Cano Martín, revived the tradition, and ever since, the patron saint has been celebrated with a church service in the morning and a procession in the afternoon.

Baeza holds festivities in honour of its patron saint during the second week of August. The Virgen del Alcázar, venerated by the people of Baeza since 1147, was given this name because her image was found near the fortress, and together with San Andrés, she is co-patron of the city. The city, declared a World Heritage Site, holds a wide variety of events to pay tribute to the one who, since 1941, has also been Baeza's honorary mayoress. Competitions, a daytime fair, bullfighting shows, an open-air dance, cultural events, and the day dedicated to absent citizens of Baeza are all part of this festival, which ends with the procession of the carved image of the Virgin on 15 August, carried on the shoulders of the Caballeros Horquilleros.

Baeza is an open, welcoming city at any time of year, rich in tradition and boasting a wealth of historic and artistic heritage that has earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. If there is one particularly special time to visit, get to know it and take part in its customs, it is without doubt Holy Week. In Baeza, every spring, tradition, art, history, popular fervour and devotion all come together exceptionally well, in perfect harmony with the monumental ensemble offered by its streets and squares, the processional floats, and the rich imagery of its carvings.

This is helped by the fact that it is a long-standing tradition passed down from generation to generation, with the involvement of an entire town that becomes, during this time, a religious and cultural benchmark, and which, owing to its own distinctive character, sets it apart and gives it its own particular shine. This deep-rooted brotherhood tradition is reflected in the 23 Brotherhoods and Confraternities of the Passion, which together form an extraordinary iconographic catalogue of Christs and Sorrowful Virgins. Carvings such as the Cristo de Jesús de la Caída, from the 17th century, the Cristo de la Humildad from the 16th century, or Sorrowful Virgins such as La Soledad from the 18th century, blend into beautiful processions with their surroundings, making Baeza's Holy Week one of those designated of National Tourist Interest.

Special mention deserves the performance of the Miserere composed on commission by Hilarión Eslava (1807-1878) for Baeza Cathedral, held on the night of Holy Tuesday. A choir made up of more than 100 mixed voices brings to life Psalm 50, which begins with the words Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, O God). The distinctive feature of this Miserere is, as with the whole of Holy Week, its deep roots in local culture and the involvement of the people of Baeza. It is the whole town that sings, that has come to hold deep within its cultural identity this work, which each year echoes once again beneath the stone vaults of the church. Also worth noting is the ceremony known as El Paso, held on the morning of Good Friday, re-enacting Jesus's encounter, carrying the cross on his way to Calvary, with Saint Veronica and the Virgin. One of the most beautiful moments occurs when, through an articulated mechanism, the Cristo Nazareno blesses the townspeople as the images pass one another.