Montserrat Martínez I Alfarnate (Málaga), Apr 16 (EFE).- Alfarnate, a small municipality in Malaga with barely a thousand inhabitants, becomes Japan for yet another year with the Sakura festival, which celebrates the cherry blossoms and the that people dressed in kimonos and 60,000 paper flowers made by the neighbors give a special color to the highest town in the province.
If a few decades ago the chickpea was the star product of Alfarnate, currently this legume has been replaced by the cherry. An acidic fruit that has found in the climate and geographical location of this municipality -above 900 meters above sea level- an ideal enclave for quality production.
The municipality of Alta Axarquía has been cultivating cherry trees for 40 years, whose flower is a national symbol in the Asian country.
The Japanese community was the one that served as inspiration to create the event. “Every year they came to see the cherry blossoms, something very typical of their country,” explains the mayor, Juan Jesús Gallardo, to EFE. “They spent the day in the field and one day we thought: why don’t we celebrate it too?”, He indicated.
Sakura, Japanese cherry trees in Malaga
Sakura is the word that defines this flower in Japan. So from the Consistory they decided to promote the festival last year and it was a success. So much so that it has aroused the interest of the Japanese embassy and the Tourist Office in Spain. Both have provided a large amount of informative material.
Workshops, parades, craft stalls and gastronomy dedicated to Japan, as well as aikido, iaido (Japanese katana), kyudo (bow) or kempo exhibitions will immerse you in Japanese culture from this small white town.
The municipality will be decked out with 60,000 paper flowers made by residents, who have been making them since last January.
Kimonos
A special color is given by people dressed in kimonos sewn by neighbors. And with the help of a young local designer, Inmaculada Toledo Betancor, 29, whose brand bears her two last names.
“The idea was that we could join the party. If on other occasions we dress up as villagers or as Moors and Christians, here we think that we could all go with the traditional kimono”, he explained to EFE.
The designer recounts that the idea arose last year and that she thought that as always when there is a party they try to dress in the corresponding traditional costumes. As a villager in San Isidro, she considered that the best way to reflect Japanese culture was with kimonos.
“It has been a complete success,” says the young designer specializing in women’s clothing. She acknowledges that she has more and more orders from different parts of Spain.
He tries to adjust the price to his neighbors in town, from 30 to 50 euros, according to requests, and he already has more than 50 different models, “all personalized and made to measure,” he specified.
About twenty varieties
The municipality also has an Open Interpretation Center dedicated to the eight Japanese regions and a sakuri garden with 47 cherry trees, in memory of the 47 prefectures that Japan has.
Currently, there are more than twenty varieties of cherries grown in the fields of Alfarna.
Among them, the most frequent is the ‘quince’ variety (many of the existing types are identified with numbers), although there are also others that occur in certain quantities, such as the ‘celeste’, which is characterized for being especially sweet, the ‘burlat’, which is one of the earliest, or ‘corazón de cabrito’, which is one of the latest.
Other varieties must be added to them, such as ‘starking’, ‘bing’ or ‘lapin’. About 4 thousand cherry trees make it possible for Alfarnate to produce approximately between 70,000 and 80,000 kilos each year. Most of them are consumed directly as fruit, although there are also those who make liqueurs with them or use them to make a suggestive gazpacho. EFE