San Blas celebrated in Nieles

The patron saint San Blas, Saint Blaise in English, is honoured in two Alpujarran villages. In Cádiar there was a mass and procesion on the feast day itself, the third of February. In Nieles the villagers celebrated San Blas yesterday. There was a holy mass in the morning, a get-together in the afternoon and the image of the saint was taken out of the church at six o´clock. The sun was just setting and it was a quite moving to hear the band playing and to see the procession slowly moving through the narrow village streets with the last rays of sun iluminating the image. After the procession people lined up to buy their ´listones´. These are silk ribbons, which are used for the blessing of throats as San Blas is traditionally believed to intercede in cases of throat illnesses. Information on other fiestas in Nieles and all kinds of things related to this small village can be found on the informative website of Ángel Bañuelos. Quite recently he added new texts about ´el agua´, the history of Nieles and its church. His five ´cuadernos´ on different historical-cultural aspects can now be downloaded from his website as well.