Sax fiestas: the St Blaise Moors and Christians

Sax’s fiestas are early risers: its Moors and Christians are held in the depths of winter, from 1 to 5 February, when those of Elda, Petrer or Villena are still a long way off. Here is what is celebrated, why on those dates, its comparsas and the rest of the fiesta year.

Sax’s Moors and Christians: five days in February

Sax’s patron saint is St Blaise (San Blas in Spanish, as the calendar lists him), whose day is 3 February. According to the Town Council, in 1627 the people of Sax made a solemn vow to celebrate his fiesta, and since 1942 the Moors and Christians have lasted five days, from 1 to 5 February. As the date is fixed, the 2027 one is already known: from Monday 1 to Friday 5 February. They hold Provincial Tourist Interest status.

Eight comparsas

The Town Council counts eight comparsas (troupes). The oldest, Moros y Cristianos, give the fiesta its name; then, from the late nineteenth century, came Marruecos, Garibaldinos, Turcos, Alagoneses and Árabes Emires, and the youngest, Caballeros de Cardona, in 1989. To see where each one fits in the structure of the fiesta, there is the entry on comparsa, and for the parade, the ones on the Moorish and Christian entrance and the embajada.

With the fiesta in early February, comparsa meals get booked in mid-autumn. If yours is looking for kitchen and bar in a marquee, with QR ordering, see how we approach it in Moors and Christians and the guide to the comparsa or filà meal, and get a quote before the year is out.

The rest of the fiesta year

St Blaise is not the only date. The town website lists San Sebastián, on the weekend after 20 January, with a preacher, a solemn Mass and a procession with arquebus fire, and Santa Eulalia, the town’s former patron saint, on the weekend after 12 February, with concerts, contests and tastings in the colonia (estate village) that bears her name. On 1 May the town walks up in pilgrimage to the hermitage of San Pancracio, in the Torre area, with a day out in the countryside and a market, and 15 August is the Virgen de la Asunción, patron saint of the town, with High Mass, a procession and open-air dances. For meals at a pilgrimage or an open-air dance, see our local fiestas service.

Local holidays

In 2026 Sax had two local holidays, according to the DOGV (the regional official gazette): 3 February, St Blaise, and 26 December, the Cabildo. The latter deserves an explanation: it is an assembly open to all residents to prepare the St Blaise fiestas, heir to a medieval open council, and it is still summoned by the ringing of a bell. The 2027 local holidays are not published yet.

Sax is in the area we cover from our kitchen in Aspe: see catering in Aspe and the Vinalopó. If you are interested in neighbouring Villena, here are its fiestas, and for the rest of the year the public holidays calendar.