PHOTO GALLERY – Moros i Cristians 2023 The Flower Offering

Thursday 20th July 2023
Text: Mike Smith | Fotos: Fay Hughes

On Wednesday evening, the troops of the Moors and Christians took on the intense heat of Charon to kick off five exciting days of celebrations in the heart of Duanes de la Mar with the traditional offering of flowers to Sant Jaume.

The offering of flowers to the patron saint of the festivities is also a time for the ‘filaes’ to show their generosity by making a donation of essential food items to the Cáritas of Mare de Deu de Loreto alongside the more traditional offering of colourful bouquets and baskets.

In addition to the ‘filaes’, the offering also brought together the various fiesta commissions from across the town, including La Casa de Andalucía, La Cofradía de Jesús Nazareno, La Comissió de Festes Mare de Déu de Loreto and La Comissió de Fogueres de Sant Joan.

Finally, the Filà Capitana Almoriscos, led by the Montaner Llidó family, entered the church and, behind them, the standard bearers for 2023, Indira Rosa Cardona and Natalia Moya who were received with applause.

Filà Al-Tariks triumph once again in paella competition

The traditional community dinner also saw the paella contest between the ‘filaes’ and each participating ‘fila’ started with the same base courtesy of Supermercados SUMA and then added its own final touches to try and prepare the best version of this iconic Valencian dish.

The jury, made up of the president of the Junta, Abel Moll, the two standard bearers and the captains, conducted a blind tasting and unanimously decided that the Filà Al-Tarik’s paella was, once again, the winner of this edition. In second place was the Filà Almoriscos and in third place was the Filà Trabuquers.