MADRID (dpa) – Carnivals, country pilgrimages, horse spectacles and sporting festivals – there’s a new party every 20 minutes in Spain, with more than 25,000 fiestas or celebrations every year.
In the mid-1990s, two Spanish villages suffered power cuts at New Year, and the traditional street celebrations were partly cancelled. Disappointment was great until someone had an idea. Why not postpone the partying until August?Since then, Valoria la Buena in the north and Berchules in the south have celebrated New Year on the first weekend of the hottest summer month.The swinging summer New Year party has proved a big hit, drawing thousands of visitors to watch the Magi ride their donkeys among scantily-clad carnival queens and salsa dancers.They aren’t the only ones. Spaniards have been rated the most dedicated partygoers in the world and, travelling around Spain in the summer months, it seems as if the entire country is an ongoing party.In one village after another, bands are playing, folk dancers are performing, children are riding merry-go-rounds and the entire population seems to be out on the streets drinking and chatting.The bullfighting tradition is an important part of the Saint Fermin festival, the patron saint of the northern city of Pamplona.The fiesta draws hundreds of thousands of outsiders to a week-long July extravaganza of drinking, music and fireworks, which features the hair-raising spectacle of young men defying death by running alongside fierce fighting bulls in the narrow streets of the old city centre. Twelve people suffered serious injuries this year.The atmosphere of fiestas ranges from medieval piety – with participants in processions flagellating themselves to commemorate the sufferings of Christ at Easter – to gluttony in gastronomic fiestas aimed at exalting the virtues of foods such as turnips and pigs’ ears.Many of the fiestas have religious origins such as saintly apparitions but pagan elements are often mingled with Catholic traditions. The burning of giant grotesque figures in Valencia’s Fallas fiesta is believed to date back to a pre-Christian fire festival celebrating the spring equinox and summer solstice.Other fiestas stage mock historic battles to commemorate events such as clashes between Moors and Christians or Viking raids centuries ago.But you don’t need an excuse for a party and a new tradition can be launched any time. One of the best examples is the Tomatina, Spain’s most outrageous fiesta, where young men bombard each other with tons of tomatoes, literally painting the town red.The hour-long tomato battle takes place with the blessing of the authorities in the eastern market town of Bunol, where fire engines are brought in to clean up afterwards.In other places, fiesta-goers jump into mud pools, pour a ton of oranges down a hill or battle each other with wine, water, eggs, cakes, sweets or cheese. Fiestas allow adults to become children again and to transgress social norms.On the Canary Islands, men dress up as women, and in the Fallas fiesta of Valencia, satirical songs poke fun at effigies of politicians and celebrities.“Fiestas unite us and remind us of our forgotten roots,” said Isabel Forteza who owns a tobacco kiosk in the village of Alcudia on Majorca island.Fiestas also offer an escape from routine and social pressures, allowing people to express repressed sides of their personalities, experts say.But modern tourism has changed the traditional landscape drastically. The residents of Alcudia, which celebrate their patron Saint James in July, recently told the daily El Pais that fiestas are not the same with crowds of tourists, highrise hotels blocking the sea views and souvenir shops lining the streets.
