San Fermín

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Bulls running on July 7, 2005, Consistorial Square, Pamplona
Bulls running on July 7, 2005, Consistorial Square, Pamplona

The festival of San Fermín in the city of Pamplona (Navarre, Spain), is a deeply-rooted celebration held annually from noon 6 July, when the opening of the fiesta is marked by setting off the pyrotechnic txupinazo accompanied by music,[1] to midnight 14 July, with the singing of the Pobre de Mí. While its most famous event is the encierro, the running of the bulls, the week-long celebration involves many other traditional and folkloric events. It is known locally as Sanfermines and is held in honor of Saint Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona and co-patron of Navarra. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people. It has become probably the most internationally renowned fiesta in Spain.

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[edit] Origins

The Sanfermines in the medieval period was a commercial fair and secular fiesta, using for that the dates of religious festivals and using dates of festivals much older such as those of the Basques and Romans. Beginning in the 14th century people concluded certain commercial affairs after the eve of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, 23-24 June, coinciding with the beginning of summer. Because at these commercial festivals cattle merchants came into town with their animals, eventually bullfighting (corridas) came to be organized as a part of the tradition. Thus was born, sometime probably at the end of the sixteenth century, the genuine first Sanfermines.

Archives document the bull runnings only as far back as the late thirteenth century, but even if one does not know that the bull is a sacred animal in the Mediterranean world, or is unaware of the bull-dancers in Minoan frescoes, an unprejudiced outsider still may detect the remnants of an ancient pre-Christian ritual. At Pamplona, Saint Fermin – who was actually martyred at Amiens – is now sometimes said to have met his end by being dragged through the streets of Pamplona by bulls, a fate also attributed to his mentor, Saint Saturnin of Toulouse. Up to the fifteenth century, the festival was held on Saint Fermin's feast day, 25 September. The Pamplona fiesta was transferred to July in 1592.

Revelers at the opening ceremonies for the Festival of San Fermin the day before the first running.

[edit] The Running of the Bulls

The Encierro involves running in front of bulls down an 825-metre (0.51 mile) stretch of cobbled streets of a section of the old town of Pamplona. The biggest day is 7 July, when thousands of people accompany the effigy of Saint Fermin along the streets of Pamplona, along with dancers and street entertainers, such as carnival giants.

[edit] Preparation

Each morning's event starts at 8 a.m. Competitors are clad in white, with a red handkerchief (the pañuelo) tied about their necks, and a red sash (the faja) tied around their waist. The runners gather in an area at the beginning of the route called Cuesta de Santo Domingo, where they sing three times an ode before a statue of San Fermin placed in a niche in a wall there:

A San Fermín pedimos, por ser nuestro patrón, nos guíe en el encierro, dándonos su bendición. Viva San Fermín. Gora San Fermin. ("We ask San Fermín, because he is our Patron, to guide us through the Bull Run, giving us his blessing.")

Anyone who survives a close encounter with a bull is said to have been protected by San Fermin's cloak.

[edit] The actual run

The encierro begins with the letting off of two rockets, the cohetes. One firecracker announces the release of the bulls from their corral, and a second firecracker signals that the last bull has left the corral.

The event is dangerous. Since 1924, 15[1] people have been killed (most recently, a 20-year-old American in 1995 and a Navarra man who died September 2, 2003, after falling into a coma after the run), and over 200 have been seriously injured. Most injuries nowadays, however, are caused by the stampede of participants seeking to run away from the powerful bulls. The organizers release multi-lingual guides (with safety tips) to running the event: it is strongly recommended that these be read beforehand.

Beginning with the publication of Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises about the event, a large percentage of runners are tourists. Many tourists lack the experience and skill needed to run safely in the Encierro. Local people, as well as visitors from certain areas of Spain, have had more opportunity to practice in other encierros, bull and cow fests, which used to be held in a wider space than in the historic center of Pamplona.

Stray bulls become extremely agitated (they are herd animals who do not like to be separated from the pack), and so the organisers arrange for a "second wave" of calmer and older steers to run through the streets after the "first wave," in order to collect any stragglers. The shops and residences along the course are boarded up to prevent damage by either bull or human during the race. One particular stretch of the course, called Mercaderes, is particularly notorious for injuries. On rainy days the bulls cannot turn well on the cobblestones, and often collide into the wall; tear marks from the sharpened horns against the pulp wood barriers give an indication as to the events of days before. While locals are always keen to avoid this corner, it is not uncommon to see tourists getting trampled and seriously injured there.

The course concludes at Pamplona's Plaza de Toros, and the bulls are herded inside the Corralillos to participate in the afternoon's Corrida.

The participants of the Encierro are left in the stadium, and Vacas (Cows) (with wrapped horns) are released into the arena and toss the participants, to the general amusement of the crowd. Once all of the bulls have entered the stadium, a third rocket is released while a fourth firecracker indicates that the bulls are in their bullpens and the run has concluded.

[edit] Connected activities

During the days, the town has a carnival with rides and ferris wheels, as well as an abundance of sangria and Kalimotxo sold by bars and restaurants. Many locals are known to pass these days away from Pamplona to avoid the associated people, noise and filth.

The Riau-Riau was a mass activity held on 6 July. The members of the city council would parade from the City Hall to a nearby chapel dedicated to Saint Fermín. Protesting youths would mass blocking the way, dancing to the Astrain Waltz played by the city band. The councilors would be stuck for hours sometimes being unable to exit the City Hall. The procession was finally removed from the festival calendar.

At night, the town erupts into an enormous party. The Comparsa de Gigantes (Company of Giants) parade the streets— enormous puppets accompanied by brass bands. The streets are filled with drunken revelers, and the thousands of tourists find them asleep in parks. The local school is offered by the town as a storage facility for backpackers' gear.

After nine days of partying, the people of Pamplona meet in the Plaza Consistorial at midnight on 14 July, singing the traditional mournful notes of the Pobre de Mí ('Poor Me'), in a magical, candlelit ending.

[edit] San Fermin Song

Before the celebration of San Fermin, the song below is sung:

"Uno de enero, dos de febrero, tres de marzo, cuatro de abril, cinco de mayo, seis de junio siete de julio, ¡SAN FERMÍN! "Uno de enero, dos de febrero, tres de marzo, cuatro de abril, cinco de mayo, seis de junio siete de julio, ¡SAN FERMÍN! A Pamplona hemos de ir, con una media, con una media, a Pamplona hemos de ir con una media y un calcetín."

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The ceremony, which dates to the beginning of the twentieth century, has been accompanied by ever greater ceremony and is now is televised all over Spain. (Spanish Wikipedia:"Chupinazo").

[edit] External links

[edit] Listening