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Salvatierra, 2017. Photo: Bea Gallego.

Dawn songs have been a crucial aspect of popular worship in the rural world and which still persist in the early 21^st century (or at least that was the case until the pandemic) in different towns of Álava. The songs have some characteristics in common, but each place has its own specific traits.

“Auroros, despertadores or rosarieros” brotherhoods who called the faithful to say the rosary of the dawn (aurora) were known to already exist back in the 17^th century. Yet the heyday was from the 18^th century onwards, when the worshiping of the rosary was also at its zenith. Rosaries thus began to be sung on Sundays and feast days to simple and popular melodies. Organised groups formed lamp or bell processions, that called the local residents to say a rosary at the first mass of the morning and referring to the saint and feast day in question, to whom the rosary would be dedicated.

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