Canet d'en Berenguer starts countdown to its patron saint festivities
In Canet d'en Berenguer, a town next to Sagunto in the Camp de Morvedre district, local sponsors have kicked off the patron saint festivities for the Virgin against the Fevers, running from 6 to 15 September.
Between 6 and 15 September, Canet d'en Berenguer — a town on the border with Sagunto, within the Camp de Morvedre district — will hold its biggest festival week in honour of the Virgin against the Fevers, with religious, bullfighting and food events lined up day after day. The calendar, however, was already set in motion before that official date.
On Sunday, this year's "clavarios" and "clavariesas" (the local volunteers who fund and run the festivities) held the fourth edition of the Pujà de la Mare de Déu, a ceremony that symbolically opens the calendar's central days. Carrying the patron saint's statue, the procession followed the route linking the Capilla del Mar chapel with the Sant Pere parish church, retracing the path that ties the devotion to its origin by the sea. Any resident could join the walk or help carry the image, in a call designed to involve the whole town.
According to Mayor Pere Antoni, this event has grown in importance since it was revived four editions ago, and now works as the official starting gun for the festive calendar, awaited each year with growing enthusiasm among residents.
Behind this date lies a legend passed down through generations in Canet: in the 17th century, a fever epidemic devastated the local population. Tradition says that on 8 September a statue of a virgin appeared by the sea, and that as soon as residents carried it through the town, the sick began to recover. The episode was remembered as a collective miracle and turned the Virgin into the town's patron saint; ever since, 8 September has been marked with a solemn mass followed by a procession.
Although many residents place the starting gun at the Plantà del pal, set for Sunday 6 September, the festive mood actually wakes up a day earlier: the Penya Taurina Un Dia Més bullfighting club opens the week on 5 September with the first bullfighting events and food gatherings — a detail not always shown on posters, confirmed by Canet d'en Berenguer town council's own website. Then, on the 6th, dozens of volunteers take turns raising, using ropes and ladders and no machinery, a 20-metre wooden pole until it stands fixed in front of the church; hours later, the Ollas gather residents around cauldrons of rice and stew-type dishes served outdoors.
Bullfighting week has three fixed dates: young bulls running loose through the streets, bulls with flaming horns ("embolados") after dark, and, on 7 September — the day known as the Bou del Poble ("the town's bull") — the release at 7pm of an untamed bull that runs free before being fitted with flaming horns that night, one of the best-attended moments of the programme. Alongside this, live bands play through the evenings, paella contests hand out prizes among teams of cooks, and the Tira de la Colonia sees the "clavarios" and "clavariesas" — who each year voluntarily organise and fund much of the programme — walk the streets spraying cologne as they pass.
The festival's biggest day, the Pujà aside, arrives on 8 September: a solemn mass for the patron saint followed by a procession through Canet's historic centre. The next day, the 9th, the mass of Les Ànimes (the souls) leads into a floral offering and, after dark, the Ball de plaça, a traditional dance around a bonfire that closes the day on a quieter note than the rest of the programme.
The curtain falls on 15 September with a mascletà (a daytime fireworks display known for its rhythm and noise) that ends more than a week of continuous celebration. For the rest of Camp de Morvedre — Sagunto included — this date has earned a fixed place in the district's early-autumn calendar, with Canet d'en Berenguer's beach and historic centre as the main meeting point.
The role of "clavario", common to most Valencian patron saint festivities, falls to families and local groups who volunteer each season to fund and coordinate the events, from religious rites to bullfighting. In Canet, sharing out that responsibility takes months of preparation before the big week officially begins in September.
The closeness to Sagunto and good transport links with the rest of the district explain why much of the crowd filling Canet's streets during these days comes from neighbouring towns, making the Virgin against the Fevers festivities a celebration that spills well beyond the town's own municipal boundary.
According to El Periódico de Aquí, with additional details from Canet d'en Berenguer town council on the real start of the bullfighting and food programme.