Traditions old and new in Alfaz

THE third and final singing of the Trisagio hymns at Alfaz’s San Jose church was followed by the traditional offering of flowers. 
The Trisagio Alfasino, part of Alfaz’s intangible heritage, is sung on the three days preceding November 10, the feast day of the town’s patron, the Santisimo Cristo del Buen Acierto. 
The sung and recited verses are part of an oral tradition, handed down  
since March 1857 when the Santisimo Cristo statue arrived in the town “to adorn a more than lifesize cross.”  
Hundreds of festeros celebrating the fiestas left their flowers with parish priest Fr Angel Schiller at the foot of the altar. 
Local participation in the offering of the flowers was, as always, high but the many children taking part guaranteed the continuity of the local fiestas, Vicente Arques, Alfaz’s mayor said. 
Not only flowers were taken to the San Jose church and the mayor thanked the festeros and members of the public for bringing food and basic staples for distribution by the local Volunteers Association. 
Forty-two of the peñas fiestas clubs and their 850 members, who included children and adults, took part in Alfaz’s three days of processions, parades, dancing until the early hours and fireworks displays, including the final “bombardeo”  that brought the fiestas to an end in the Plaza Mayor.