Tomorrow is “La Vieja”, a local holiday where schoolchildren are given the day off to go into the fields and throw stones at figures of old ladies (la vieja) until they burst and scatter sweets across the ground.
Its a holiday that is only really celebrated in Turre, Mojacar, Los Gallardos, Bedar, Vera, Garrucha, Antas and Cuevas. It’s always the third Thursday in March.
Rumour has it that it celebrates the crucifiction and stoning of witches by the Inquisition during the 15/16th century in this area, during which quite a few elderly ladies were killed by the Catholic Church, accused of witchcraft and heresy.
This year it coincides with “fathers day” in Spain, which it does every 22 year due to the way the calendar falls.
I think that’s functionally a bean planting ceremony (like the Sant Medir fest in Barcelona on March 3), combined with killing the old to ensure fertility of the new, and other Golden Bough bullshit.