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The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Pedro Alberto Cruz, said in his opening speech of the festival of San Antón, delivered at the shrine dedicated to the saint of Murcia, that "it is surprising that a neighborhood completely redone, almost unrecognizable in his appearance, preserved as treasure their parties and make them the most popular and most celebrated vintage flavor of many people and neighborhoods of the city, along with those in a few days will take place in Santa Eulalia in honor of San Blas and Candelaria. "

"It's commendable, worthy of sincere praise and recognition from all Murcia, for the love and respect for tradition, preservation and enhancement, dignity to a people and gives cohesion and capacity for collective action" Pedro Alberto Cruz stressed.

The crier went through the origins of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Anthony and his establishment in the city of Murcia, and praised the likes of the hermit by Salzillo in 1746.

Cruz said that "the celebrations surrounding St. Anton have grown and strengthened, and they have benefited from the essential contributions of the Festival Committee, the Neighborhood Council, the Parish of San Francisco Javier, the Brotherhood of St Anton and since then, and especially the neighbors, which constitute the basis on which it has built a solid building block parties in which it has managed to blend the old with the new and the religious and the profane. "

Cruz recalled chronicles written by Carlos Valcarcel celebration a quarter-century ago, in which he spoke of his "hopeful resurgence" and proceeded then to give an account of the stories and legends that brought to San Anton and protector pets.

Pedro Alberto Cruz also recalled the practice in the establishment of the Order of San Antonio Abad hospital released a few pigs in the vicinity of the neighboring convent to serve the reared and then with its sale of its products, the maintenance of expenses incurred by the parties in honor of the patron saint.

This practice also resulted in Murcia, 1742, to a curious episode in which the consistory had to intervene.

The blessing of animals on 17 January and the holy rolls have been considered by the Minister of Culture as "rites which are mixed religion and popular beliefs that give the festival its character and roots, and They revolve around the rest of the civic and religious celebrations. "

These celebrations, according to the counselor said, "are wisely dharma in a program in which there is no place for devotion and fun, and also has its place in recent decades, San Fulgencio, the patron saint of the Diocese , whose image is venerated in this small chapel and out in procession on his feast day. "

In the final section of his speech, Cruz said that "the festival of San Antón offer us a plausible example, because without abandoning its secular nature, been able to incorporate all sorts of activities update and revitalize, enabling us to assert, without fear to exaggeration, that after five centuries of history and popular religious celebrations in honor of the saint live their best. "

Source: CARM