Manacor lives its patron saint of Sant Juame. | Emilio Queirolo
July 25 is the day of Saint James the Apostle.
Referred to in Mallorca by the Catalan Sant Jaume, for Spain he is Santiago, the country’s patron saint. One of the premier fiestas of the year, there is nowhere in Mallorca that does Sant Jaume quite like Manacor. Knights on horseback carry and deliver the standard of Saint James, and there is the ‘race of the ring’ for horses along the Via Verde (Green Way). And the ‘encamisada’ procession is one of the great fiesta occasions.
In Algaida, the specific origin of the cossier folk dancers is unknown, but they are one of the oldest groups. They were revived in 1973, having for a time been removed from the fiestas’ environment as they had to perform for tourists. The cossiers’ tradition in Mallorca goes back to mediaeval times.