Spain: The Country of One Endless Party

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Spain is a country where the fiesta never ends; in addition to the national holidays and festivals, every town or region has their own special festival or saints day. Some of these festivals are really well known such as the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona or La Tomatina in Valencia (Everyone has a huge, 3000 person tomato fight in the streets and then the fire trucks come through to hose everyone down) or Las Fogueras where every neighborhood or school builds elaborate paper mache figures or statues (very big, some are taller than the buildings) that are paraded around the street for a week before a winner is chosen. On the last night all the statues except for the winner are burnt, there are bonfires on every street with figures burning. Let’s just say that the Spaniards know how to party. Even the religious based festivals like Semana Santa where religious idols such as the Virgin Mary or a town’s special saint are taken out and paraded around town have are lively, party filled events with elaborate costumes. I watched a special on TV with my host family on the festivals that had taken place during August throughout Spain and the program must have gone on for about 2 hours showing photos and videos of all the events and this was only for August! I thought it was very interesting that the costumes for Semana Santa in Seville are dark hooded robes with a tall conical hat. The KKK stole the design for their uniforms from the costumes of Semana Santa.
Anyway, back to Los moros y cristianos festival in Villena, which celebrates the reconquest of Spain by the Church from the Moors. Any town that was located along the ancient Christian/Muslim borderline celebrates their own Moros y Cristianos festival sometime throughout the year. I got to see a very small part of the parade where everyone dresses up as either a Moor or a Christian. People parade down the main street and for every group of 10-30 people dressed in identical costumes there is a small band playing music to accompany them walking. The Moors come first followed by the Christians. Everyone from children to old people who live in Villena participates and the parade goes on for 4-5 hours during which over 13,000 people march in the parade. (Its estimated that after the parade ends and the real party starts 30,000 people fill the streets of this small town to celebrate) There was confetti, and horses and I even saw a camel. People were sitting on their balconies watching the parade and throwing confetti down onto the streets and cheering. Everyone was in jolly, happy mood (but that may also have been the result of drinking non stop for the past 3 days) Many people who were marching carried either a beer or a jug of wine or a flask which they drank while marching and people were throwing up new drinks to those marching who had finished the drink in their hand. It was extremely interesting and an overall fun and lively experience. I would have liked to stay and watch the mock fights that occur after the parade (we only saw the part where the moors march) In the first fight that occurs at the beginning of the festival, the Moorish King wins but on the last night of the festival, the Christian king wins the mock fight. The best part was that everyone was so involved in the festival, no one thought twice about walking around in tight pants or heavy makeup, I definitely want to see more of the festivals and fiestas of Spain! They are a celebration of the enjoyment of life and people have no problem dancing or singing in the streets. In many cases, the crazier and more hectic the festival (fireworks, light displays, bonfires, extravagant costumes) the better! Definitely right up my alley.

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Photos

More Moros
It was around 89 degrees during the parade...you can image everyone was dying of heat in those costumes