In the “heart of emptied Spain” is Molina de Aragón, a town with a unique tradition in Spain: celebrating Christmas Eve twice. The first, on the night of December 7 to 8.
For the people it is a Christmas celebration, a time when all families gather in a replica of the Christian celebration, dinner and midnight mass included. “Although not the Gallo one,” specifies the parish priest Raúl Pérez Sanz, who comments to elDiarioclm.es that, in a demographically depressed place, this moment is the time of great gathering of families and that the town can accommodate about 10,000 people that night, when its population barely exceeds 3,000 inhabitants.
The Christmas Eve rite, the “little” Christmas, begins with the climb to the Santa Lucía hill to attend the bonfire of the Immaculate Conception, with the imposing views of the castle in the background. The fire of the bonfires begins the festive cycle that will end on Three Kings Day. Although it is a popular tradition, the parish priest points out that its origin is in the belief that the Virgin Mary is ‘immaculate’, “before, during and after” the birth of Jesus Christ.
It all began with a papal dispensation granted in 1518 by Leo X to two cities in Spain: Molina de Aragón and Mula, in Murcia. Only Molina maintains the tradition. The bull literally explains that “guided by pious devotion” churches are granted the possibility of celebrating “solemnly, freely and devoutly” a mass on the day before December 8, when the ‘immaculate conception’ is celebrated. “And may it last for many years and may all of us see it,” says the priest.
And from then until now, although not without interruptions. The parish priest Raúl Pérez says that it all began with a popular hymn, whose authorship is unknown, called ‘The Purities’. “We don’t know who wrote it or the music, but it is still popularly sung,” he says. “It has been passed from generation to generation,” he highlights, although the tradition of the “little” Christmas has undergone modifications throughout its history, maintaining the aspects of “union and encounter.”
While today there is only one parish priest in the town, another example of the serious demographic drain that the area is suffering, in 1518 there were eleven, who, by the way, “did not speak to each other” and who each had their parishioners, their masses. and their schedules.
“What was done was to ask the Pope to send something that would help unify the churches into one. And the Molina Town Council was created.” The person who promoted this union was the parish priest Juan Sardón. He asked for the papal bull that granted the “privilege.” It has survived to this day. The entire town gathers around a single bonfire, precisely next to a monument with which the town celebrates that bull.
The historian Teresa Díaz states in an article titled ‘Christmas in Molina de Aragón’, published in the magazine ‘La Natividad: art, religiosity and popular traditions’ that in 1883 Pope Leo XIII was asked to renew the papal bull to continue the celebration of the night mass, due to the fear of losing the tradition. And that same year the concession to the city was renewed.
In 1954, and on the occasion of the proclamation of the so-called ‘Dogma of the Immaculate Conception’, a monument was erected in Molina de Aragón on the Santa Lucía hill, next to the hermitage. In this way, the date of June 18, 1544 was remembered, explains the historian, on which the people of Molinese gathered to defend the celebration of their particular festival. It is right next to this monument that the great bonfire on December 7 is celebrated, in honor of its patron saint, from a strategic point that allows you to admire the entire town.
The custom is to climb the hill on the afternoon of December 7, loaded with cider, champagne, nougat and guitars to sing Christmas carols. “The same thing that is done on Christmas Eve starting at 12 at night, but here it is done much earlier,” explains Raúl Pérez. The town is already decorated as if it were Christmas: decorated balconies, nativity scenes installed and festive clothing.
Molina de Aragón has been losing population in recent years, 13% between 2012 and 2022, which has made it one of the areas with the least demographic density in Europe. And this is also noticeable at parties. “Christmas Eve is almost nonexistent in this town, because many people have married people from outside and celebrate it outside.” But Little Christmas attracts the entire population, due to its unique and endearing character. “He takes advantage of this moment to come and see his people. This is the meeting,” says the priest.
The parishes celebrate with disco-mobile, paella and ‘tardeo’
On Christmas Eve, no one is left alone in the town, because it is a “generous” town, he says, that always has something to give. There is also a traditional menu: cardoon with almond sauce and roast or fried suckling pig. “Among the people registered there will be about 3,200 or 3,700, but on Christmas Eve I assure you that we reach 9,000 or even 10,000 people,” he says.
Even mass is packed that night. “Because it is our day of celebration, of tradition, of the patron saint of the city,” concludes the priest, who assures that the town has encouraged the celebration of the festival with a “more modern” part, and the parishes also welcome disco-mobile with paella and ‘tardeo’. “From twelve in the morning until nine at night” and then, all night blank, because “everyone goes to bed at eight in the morning.”
“It is a very surprising party,” he says, for those who, like him, arrive in Molina without knowing it. December 7, a sacred day for Molinese tradition, in which a new cycle closes as the fire goes out and dawn returns.
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