Fiestas and Traditions
Besides the most important holidays, Christmas, Holy Week, All
Saints Day, etc., all towns and cities, and even
neighbourhoods and professions have their patron saints whose
feasts last for a number of days. These are high feasts,
which do not prevent the celebration of other feasts in
honour of other saints. The majority of high feasts are
observed in summer and fall, following harvest time. That is
the justification of such festivals as the 'Sanfermines'
in Pamplona, Valencia's Fallas, Sevilla's Feria de Abril
and Madrid's San Isidro.
In addition to these popular events, the different Holy Week
celebrations in many Spanish cities should be mentioned,
especially the ones in Sevilla.
But be it a secular or religious feast, there are always bulls
present, the adult bulls in the most important rings and the
younger ones (novillos) in the minor rings.
The Fiesta Nacional, as the bullfight is called in Spain, is
experiencing an unexpected revitalization, with a great
increase in spectators and to the apprearance of a new
generation of young bullfighters who alternate with the
confirmed masters.
Bullfighting was originally done on horseback and was a sport
reserved for the aristocracy. It was practiced in two
different ways, either the rider and his mount were face to
face with the bull or they practically sideswiped the animal
trying to spear it during the fight. Gonzalo Argote de
Molina was the first to write down the precepts of
bullfighting in his book or 'Libro de la Monteria' which
Alfonso XI commissioned him to write. However the most
detailed tracts on the practice of bullfighting on horseback
were written around the middle of the 17th century.
The vassals or assistants were only there to hand the spears to
their masters or help them to up if they happened to fall
off their horse during the fight.
A radical transformation took place in bullfighting when Felipe V
prohibited the nobles from practicing it, as he considered
the sport a bad example for the public's education.
From then on the aristocrats' assistants, common men, took it
over and began to fight bulls unarmed by dodging them, pole
vaulting over them, raising small spears, the origin of
today's 'banderillas' and also using objects or rags to
sidestep the beasts, a pastime which took such deep root and
became so popular that eminent researchers like Thebusen and
the Count de las Navas began calling it the 'most national'
of feasts.
The transformation from horseback to fighting bulls on foot took
place around the year 1724, however during those times
posters didn't exist and bullfights were announced by the
town crier.
Very little known about the first bullfighters until Joaquin
Rodriguez (Costillares), Pedro Romero and Jose Delgado
(Pepe-Illo) made relevant contributions to bullfighting and
professionalized it. Delgado did a great deal to stimulate
and regulate the art and wrote the first didactic work on
bullfighting on foot.
The democratic city councils have played a preponderant role in
the recovery of traditional feasts and festivals. 'Romerias'
(celebrations held near a shrine), Mardi Gras
carnivals, especially those held in the Canary Islands and
Cadiz, dances and processions have been revived in great part
thanks to the local administrations. At present, the
public has retrieved a wide variety of national folklore.
There are the 'sevillanas' which have become fashionable in
the discos, and 'muneira', 'sardana', and 'aragonese' and
'castilian jota' groups abound while more and more people are
becoming enthusiasts of 'flamenco' and 'cante jondo'. As
has ocurred with other traditions, folk dances and music
seem to have profited from a modernization of customs.
*Special Acknowledgement to Si, Spain for this information*
Back to SPAIN