The L'Ereta festival marks the end of the Easter week mini-vacation

The L'Ereta festival is the culmination of the Easter mini-vacation. This celebration goes back a long way in time and is still observed today. Over the years some of the traditions have evolved to suit modern tastes, but spirit of the festival is still kept alive. On Easter Monday, the residents of Finestrat gather at Font del Molí, an outdoor area on the lower slopes of Puig Campana mountain, to eat the "mona", a traditional Alicante sweet cake decorated with a hard-boiled egg. The town's older residents say that before eating the "mona" a little ritual had to be followed while reciting "here I've got a tickle, here I've got an itch, here I'll break the mona and here I'll eat the egg". Then, before taking the first bite, you broke the shell of the hard-boiled egg in the "mona" on the other person's forehead. There's nothing left of this ceremony today, except the memory that's been passed down from parents to children. What has remained is the festival and the desire to have fun on what's usually a really lovely warm Spring day.

This Monday, 10 April, at 12:00 noon, the town's young—and not so young—residents will be getting together at Font del Molí for a community lunch. Chairs and tables are arranged and the Finestrat Festival Commission sets up a bar for food and drinks. Groups of friends, families and festival organisers come up here to the foot of Puig Campana mountain to have fun and enjoy the day. There are bouncy castles for the kids and a local band livens up the party atmosphere with some music.

Both in times gone by and nowadays, sweets have played a very important role in L'Ereta. As well as eating the "mona", stalls used to be set up selling "turrón" (nougat) and "peladillas" (sugared almonds). It was one of the few days in the year that you could indulge the whim of eating something special, and as it was springtime, it was also a chance for the town’s young men to impress the girls. They say that some years the competition was so great that the young man with the greatest purchasing power actually bought up the whole stall, leaving the others high and dry. These days, all that's left of this ritual are the cakes and pastries, which are still as popular as ever.

You can buy your Easter Monday "monas" and pastries in Forn d'Honorato bakery at Carrer Forn Alt 1 and at Carrer Nou Dolç 22.