Fuego festivo, humo sagrado: Las luminarias de San Antón en Tierra de Pinares (Ávila)

Abstract

The feast-day of Anthony the Abbot, better known simply as St Anthony, is still celebrated in many Spanish towns and villages on 17 January every year. In the depths of winter, traditionally a period of rest from agricultural labour, people light bonfires in a renewal and purification ritual whose origins lie in the religious practices of Ancient Rome. In the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, in the province of Avila, the St Anthony celebrations have not only survived, but have seen a resurgence of interest in recent years. Information gathered from interviews carried out in 2008 gives greater insight into the primitive aspects of the feast-day (“setting the village free from the forces of evil”) as well as into its gradual secularisation.