Sopeta Day in Bronchales, Spain

The sopeta is an ancient tradition of some villages in Spain consisting of gathering all the inhabitants of the place around large barrels of wine, distributed free of charge by the City Council, to which sugar and usually pieces of bread are added.

The beginning of this custom could very well start from the pagan feast of thanksgiving to the god Bacchus for the success in the harvest of the fruits of the field, as it was already done among the Romans or among the Greeks with their god Dionysus. Later, as it happened with many other pagan customs, it was tried to sacralize and adapt to the new times and religious situations and to the needs of each people or culture.

The sopeta is prepared on August 16, coinciding with the celebration of San Roque. For this reason, in many places it is also known as "La caridad de San Roque". Although the exact beginning of this remote tradition is not known, many locals relate the offering of bread and wine (body and blood of the Lord) in honor of the Saint as a token of gratitude for all the charitable donations that San Roque made in life, hence the other name it receives.

It is also said that the fact of pouring bread into the wine barrels comes from the story that tells that San Roque's dog brought a little bread every day to the Saint, who had retired in solitude to a forest because he was infected with the plague.

The tradition of making the sopeta on the day of San Roque is especially common in some villages of Guadalajara and Teruel.