The History of Spanish Fiestas

Fernan L. Yabres
AB Political Science III

Prof. Jessa Selibio

History 56-A
October 2011

Topic Outline
Spanish Fiestas

I.

Introduction

II.

San Fermin Festival

III.

Fallas Fiesta

IV.

Tomatina Festival

V.

La Vedimia

VI.

Relevance of Fiesta for Filipinos

The History of Spanish Fiestas

No country on earth is quite as good at enjoying itself as Spain. Spains rich
cultural history, traditions, and many regions have brought out fun and original
celebrations. Some are of religious nature, others are historical, and all vary in length
and style, but one thing remains the same in each: they all take place outdoors with
music, fireworks and involve a great deal of lively spirit by the Spanish people.

Much of Spanish life is lived in the streets and fiestas are celebrated all through
the year. There are so many of them, it is said that even if you attend more than one per
day, you would not be able to see them all in a single lifetime. Spanish fiestas symbolize
the very essence of Spain and the Spanish people. They're colorful, vibrant, usually
extremely noisy, often chaotic and always great fun.
The origins of many of the country's countless fiestas lie in religious feasts, often
honoring a patron saint. It's the same in northern Europe where many public holidays
were born out of religious 'holy days'. But northern Europe simply can't compete with
Spain when it comes to turning a religious celebration into riotous round-the-clock knees
up. Perhaps it's the warm weather or maybe it's the exuberant, uninhibited nature of the
Spaniards who just love to party. One thing's for certain: when it's fiesta time, no-one
does it better than the Spanish.
The nature of each fiesta depends on its origin. Some involve serious, even
mournful religious processions but most are accompanied by street parties with
marching bands, firework displays and much general merrymaking. The Moors
and Christians fiestas which take place all over Spain hark back to the centuries of
Moorish domination which made a major impact on the country's culture, cuisine,
language and traditions. Even the tiniest and most remote mountain villages organize
their own bull running as part of their annual celebrations in honor of their patron saint.
Participants are killed and injured every year but despite protests by safety campaigners
and animal rights activists, the Spanish show no signs of abandoning this age-old fiesta
tradition.

San Fermin Festival

The festival in honor of San Fermn celebrated in Pamplona -los Sanfermines- is
a mixture of the official and the popular, the religious and the profane, for local people
and outsiders, the old and the new, order and chaos. And all of this packed into one
long week starting with a bang at midday on the sixth of July and ending with the
nostalgia tinged with expectation at midnight on the fourteenth. The San Fermines have
always been a special festival but when Pamplona was still a small unknown city
-provincial and clerical- the San Fermines found their most fervent supporter in the
American writer Hemingway. The Sanfermines offer the visitor an open and hospitable
festival where anything out of the ordinary is welcomed and soon becomes part of the
tradition, so long as it shows the respect due to others. The Sanfermines is a fiesta
where no one is an outsider, everyone is equal and in which the festive spirit is never
broken, centered on the people of Pamplona in the widest sense: all the people in the
city during the always too short 204 hours of revelry, dancing, prayers and bacchanalian
extravagance.
It shouldn't be forgotten that the Sanfermines is a festival of religious origins and
that this aspect is still relived in huge demonstrations such as the Procession on the
morning of the seventh. But the religious celebration is in perfect harmony with the cult
of the bull -a symbolic animal- and with the cult of Bacchus, the god of wine -a drink
which is no less symbolic. The Sanfermines are, in short, a total, absolute and radical
festival in which the people of Pamplona play the leading part, but in which outsiders
feel immediately at home -there's no question of being a mere onlooker- as for nine
days Pamplona becomes the world capital of happiness.

Fallas Fiesta
Las Fallas is undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain.
Then again, Spain is a country known for its unique and odd fiestas. What started as a
feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day,
multifaceted celebration involving fire. Valencia, a quiet city with a population of just
over 1 million, swells to an estimated three million flame-loving revelers during Las
Fallas celebrations. Las Fallas literally means "the fires" in Valencia. The focus of the
fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots (puppets or dolls), which are huge
cardboard, wood, paper-mach and plaster statues. The ninots are extremely lifelike
and usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is
poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The labor intensive ninots,
often costing up to US$75,000, are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take
almost the entire year to construct. Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be
moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city
with the aid of cranes on the day of la plant (the rising).
The origin of las Fallas is a bit murky, but most credit the fires as an evolution of
pagan rituals that celebrated the onset of spring and the planting season. In the
sixteenth century, Valencia used streetlights only during the longer nights of winter. The
street lamps were hung on wooden structures, called parots, and as the days became
longer the now-unneeded parots were ceremoniously burned on St. Joseph's Day. Even
today the fiesta has retained its satirical and working-class roots, and the well-to-do and
faint-of-heart of Valencia often ditch out of town during Las Fallas. Besides the burning
of the ninots, there is a myriad of other activities during the fiesta. During the day, you

can enjoy an extensive roster of bullfights, parades, paella contests and beauty
pageants around the city. Spontaneous fireworks displays explode everywhere during
the days leading up to La Crema, but the highlight is the daily masclet which occurs in
the Plaza Ayuntamiento at exactly 2pm. When the string-lined firecrackers are ignited,
the thunderous, rhythmic sounds they make can be considered music as the sound
intensifies in volume. Those firecrackers timed to fall to the ground literally shake the
floor for next ten minutes, as themasclet is more for enjoyment than visual.
Tomatina Festival
The sunny Mediterranean city of Valencia in Spain is world-renowned for its tasty
and succulent oranges. And just thirty miles away is Buol, another town just as famous
for its produce. But its notoriety comes from the locals' habit of wearing the produce as
well as tasting it: every year, Buol hosts La Tomatina, the world's largest vegetable
fight. Situated only 30 kilometers inland from the Mediterranean Sea, and wellconnected by motorway and rail to Madrid and Valencia, this charming town erupts into
a fiery blaze of tomato-hurling on the last Wednesday of every August.
The "batalla" takes place during a week-long celebration filled with on-going
festivities and with even greater anticipation for the monstrous tomato battle that serves
as the culmination of the week's events. Without question the biggest tomato fight in the
world, La Tomatina started with a good laugh. During the forties, in Buol's main town
square, a number of friends started a tomato fight for unknown reasons. It's unclear
whether the initial volley was aimed at city officials or simply pedestrians unlucky
enough to be in the line of fire. Soon enough, however, with their rowdy hooliganism

drawing passers-by into the fray, everyone was having a great time. They had so much
fun, in fact, that from that day forward, the fiesta has been celebrated annually and has
grown ever bigger each year.
In an effort to draw more tourism (and therefore more targets) into the small town
of Buol, La Tomatina has blossomed into a full-blown fiesta that coincides with the
festival for the town's patron saint. For a week leading up to the epic battle, the 20,000strong town of Buol, is filled with parades, fireworks, and food and street parties. The
night before La Tomatina, the narrow streets beneath the town's imposing Medieval bell
tower are filled with tomatoes, in a much more palatable form than they will be the next
day! Cauldrons of delectable paella cooking simmered traditionally over wood-burning
fires line the Concurso des Paellas, near the Plaza del Pueblo, site of the imminent
skirmishes. Wine and food flow around the small town until the wee hours, in a fabulous
Dickens-like foreshadowing. Then, early Wednesday morning, shopkeepers and
business owners along the Plaza set about covering windows and doors in preparation
for the messy onslaught. Large trucks rumble up the cobblestone streets to arrive in the
crowd-filled square and, from the back of the huge trucks, official instigators begin
ceremoniously pelting the awaiting throng with their precious cargo: sloppy, squishy
tomatoes trucked in from the four corners of Spain.
Dressed in clothing doomed for the rubbish bin, more than 20,000 revelers
retaliate against the truckers, each other and anything else that strays within range of
their hand-crushed veggie blobs. Soon the streets are awash in seeds, pulp and tomato
guts - possibly one of the best starts to a great marinara sauce to be found west of Mont
Blanc. The insanity ensues until more than 90,000 pounds of tomatoes have been

hurled at anything with a pulse that ducks, runs, stops, turns about, or fights back. For
visiting tourists, be aware that anyone with a camera or a baseball cap will be
considered a prime target. Like all good battles, the assault is over in less than half an
hour. Everyone then reconciles with their former targets and fellow warriors and heads
down to the river to remove the saucy mess from hair and body.
La Vedimia
La Vendimia, in English is known as vintage. In wine-making the term vintage
refers to the process of picking the grapes and creating the finished product. Vintage
wine is one that is made from grapes that were grown and harvested at the same time
while a non-vintage wine usually consists of blends from various years. The word is
often used incorrectly to reference old or high quality wines. Jerez de la Frontera, a
world renowned town located in Andalusia, Spain, is home to a famous annual vendimia
grape harvest festival, a tradition that is over 500 years old. Most vendimiagrape
harvests in Spain begin on the 21st of September, the day of St. Matthew. However, in
Jerez de la Frontera the vintage festival typically begins on the closest weekend to the
8th of September, the Nativity of Our Lady. The actual vintage (grape collecting process)
often starts a week early or late, depending on the weather conditions of the year, and
lasts approximately one month.
Wine is considered to be one of the main hallmarks and identifying elements of
Jerez and its culture. The prestige and quality of their sherry wine are inseparable
elements of their citys character which is rooted in history. Las Fiestas de la
Vendimia is meant to praise this heritage and the traditional work involved in the

collection of the grapes. There are many activities during the festival including
concerts, flamenco shows, bullfights, equestrian purebred events, art expositions and
more. The festival culminates with a grand finale event which features an impressive
fireworks display.
The vendimia grape harvest festival varies each year but generally begins with a
Grand Procession on Friday. The elected Queen of the vendimia sits in the seat of
honor and is accompanied by Jerez maidens dressed in white dresses and blue silk
scarves. The costumes represent the white chalky soil of the region and the blue skies
that give life and body to their grape vines. The ladies are then driven through the
streets on grape-vine decorated floats as they toss candy to the eagerly waiting
children. Men from the town follow behind them, dressed up in festive masks. The most
important ceremony, the Blessing of the Grapes, takes place on Sunday in the
Collegiate Church. After the priest gives his blessing, the choir begins to sing and the
queen pours her basket of grapes into the lagar (traditional wooden wine press) and
four men with special boots begin to squash the grapes with their feet. This
symbolic pis event officially commences the festival which is celebrated by the
releasing of white doves and jubilant ringing from the bell tower. The same evening,
people makes their way to the feria (fair) to celebrate the festivities that have only just
begun.
Relevance of Fiesta for Filipinos
For hundreds of years, the Filipinos have been celebrating fiestas of different
kinds to honor their saints and give importance to the miracles that the saints have

gifted them. Filipinos generally love fiestas and celebrations because this is a part of
their life. The Philippines is perhaps one of the countries with the most yearly
celebrations and events. The most highlighted are the fiestas in different places as
celebration for the patron saints which were introduced before by the Spanish
conquistadores. The Philippines has been ruled by the Spanish government for three
hundred and thirty-three years which made the Philippines a highly religious country.
There are countless fiestas in the Philippines and these festivals are celebrated
in honor of the different saints. The Spanish rule in the Philippines for many years has
taught the Filipinos to love fiestas of all types. The Filipinos generally love and are
excited with all types of festivals which are celebrated yearly in different places in the
Philippines.
The celebrations come in different months so if you are planning to visit the
Philippines anytime of the year; you will be able to witness a festival that you havent
seen in any part of the world. Filipinos love to celebrate festivals with plenty of activities
including food. The roasted pig which they call Lechon is the best delicacy that
highlights the food during fiestas. There is no excitement if there is no lechon because
this is the most delicious food that a Filipino family could offer to the guests during
festivals. Filipinos are generally fond of good food. There are countless delicious dishes
that Filipinos could cook. These dishes are local and international. Filipinos are good
cooks and they learn fast. Today, the Filipino cook does not only cook local Filipino
dishes but international dishes learned from different kitchens from all over the world.

Many foreign people around the world visit Philippines to witness the festivities
that are being celebrated. They were how Filipinos celebrate the fiesta. The popular
festivals are Sinulog in Cebu, Masskara in Bacolod, Ati-atihan in Aklan, Dinagyang in
Iloilo, Moriones in Marinduque and many more. These festivals also portray the culture
that is handed down from generation. Visitors around the world feel the unifying power
of the fiesta and the Filipino's irrepressibly festive spirit.
The fiestas are celebrated for different reasons. Some fiestas are celebrated to
thank the patron saint for a good harvest. Some are celebrated to show how much the
people love the saint and some fiestas are celebrated to ask for blessings from the
saints. In short, fiestas are celebrated because of the peoples love for the different
saints. Many Filipinos have lived their lives believing in the miraculous power of the
saints. This is the reason why many Filipinos celebrate fiestas to honor the saints and
thank them for the blessings they are bestowing the Filipino people.
Sources:
http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/events_festivals.htm
http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/
http://www.spanish-living.com/fiestas-festivals-spain