Image: Viva San León

Description: Festivities of San León (Benamaurel, Granada, Spain) The devotion to San León is related to the repopulation of La Mancha in the 17th century. Miracles such as the elimination of plagues were attributed to this saint, to which were added those of avoiding earthquakes or saving lives in case of such disasters, which were quite common during the 18th century in the Baza region. To thank the saint for the favors, the neighbors promised to make one or several bagels "so big that they had to break the oven door to get it out", hence the tradition of the bagels that are so closely linked to the saint. The festivity begins on April 10 (if it coincides with Holy Week, the celebration is delayed a week), also known as the eve, with the tolling of the bells and the launching of rockets and firecrackers in the morning, but It is in the afternoon, after the last session of the Triduum, when the new brothers are received with the imposition of blessed medals and the blessing of the threads. On April 11, the acts begin with the distribution of threads in the Plaza Mayor, the threads are in charge of the Brotherhood of San León, which gives each brother a large thread and six small ones, and every attendee with a thread. This festival is registered in the Atlas of the Intangible Heritage of Andalusia. To know more about the project: http://www.iaph.es/web/canales/patrimonio-cultural/patrimonio-inmaterial/atlas/
Title: Viva San León
Credit: I contacted the Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico personally (olga.vinuales@juntadeandalucia.es) and they authorized Wikipedia to use their photographs under the CC 3.0 license. You can check their authorship on their Facebook.
Author: Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico (IAPH) – Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
Attribution Required?: Yes