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By Mike McDougall
Spaniards seem rarely to need much of a reason for a fiesta or
festival of some sort and you can pretty much guarantee that
wherever you are in Spain there will be some merrymaking going
on somewhere in honour of a patron saint – I’ve decided to
look
at some of Spain’s quirkier, slightly less known festivals and
enlighten readers as to some of the stranger practices which
take place at various times around the country.
Our journey begins in the east of the country in the town of
Bunol in the Valencia region where a week long festival in
honour of the town’s patron saint, San Luis Bertran, ends in
the famous “Tomatina”, a two hour tomato fight where lorries
bring in 120,000 kg of tomatoes for the locals to pelt each
other with. It’s all a bit of a free-for-all and it’s usually
girls pitted against boys for two hours of madness from 11am
to
1pm. Participants can expect to get extremely messy and it’s
advisable to wear something old, and preferably red, if you
don’t want the stains to show up. Despite the “Tomatina”
clearly being the highlight, there are many other facets of
the
festival to be enjoyed throughout the week with fireworks,
parades and a paella cook-off amongst the most notable.
Not so far away in the city of Valencia, townsfolk revel for a
week in the festivities of “Las Fallas”, another one of
Spain’s
more unique festivals. The raucous week of celebration takes
place in March and is most notable for “Las Fallas” which are
huge papier-mâché figures up to 60 feet in height. Built in
the
streets, the figures often have a satirical edge; Tony Blair
and
George Bush’s effigies graced last year’s festival. The
culmination of the merry-making comes on the “Night of Fire”
when all 700 of “Las fallas” are burnt to a cinder turning
many
of the city’s streets into huge bonfires. Undoubtedly the
local
fire services busiest evening of the year and certainly one
not
to be missed by visitors to the region.
Next stop is Catalonia and the town of Valls located about
100km south west of Barcelona, where every year townsfolk
gather for the legendary “Calcotada”. A celebration of food
and
in particular the “calcot” (similar to a spring onion) with
road
side bbq’s char grilling piles of them for locals to eat.
There’s even a hug pot of dipping sauce on hand to spice
things
up a bit. The main event is the eating competition as burly
local champions from all over the region line up to see how
many onions they can put away in 45 minutes, apparently it’s
not uncommon for the victor to eat in excess of 300! After a
winner has been decided the town decamps to huge local
cafeterias where for a small fee the “calcots” are served in
plentiful numbers alongside grilled meats and washed down with
as much red wine as you can drink. It’s certainly off the
beaten track a little bit and for that reason you won’t see
many tourists but expect a warm welcome from the locals who
will, undoubtedly, be in high spirits.
29th June, the day of San Pedro and we’re deep in Spain’s wine
producing heartland, La Rioja, where for one day every year
the
medieval town of Haro is host to the famous “Batalla de Vino”
(literally “Wine Battle”). Apparently the battle’s origins lie
in an ancient dispute with between Haro and its neighbours.
These days the fight is pretty good natured with thousands of
gallons of wine being hurled around the battleground (a
hillside overlooking Haro). Like the Tomatina, this is going
to
be a messy one and I’d suggest coming prepared with some
ammunition of your own, the locals have been doing this for
years so expect to take a few shots early on.
About The Author: Mike McDougall has been commissioned by
Babylon Idiomas to write a number of articles about Spanish
culture. Babylon Idiomas is a Spanish language institute with
schools in Spain [Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia],
Argentina [Buenos Aires] and Costa Rica. Visit
www.babylon-idiomas.com to learn more about Spanish
courses.
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