A skyrocket called Txupinaso launched from the balcony of the major house of Pamplona, capital city of Navarra, opens the fest named Sanfermines, one of the most popular holiday in the world. Despite of the widely spread opinion, San Fermin, son of a roman senator of the city of Pompeii, converted by the episcope of Toulouse to Christianity in the III century, wasn’t the patron of the city. Saint Fermin (or in other version Saint Cernin) was baptized by Saint Honestus, disciple of saint Saturnine, the first episcope of Toulouse, the real patron of the city of Pamplona. After serving in Toulouse, San Fermin came to Pamplona to lead the Catholic church, but was executed afterwards (for unknown reasons) in Amiens, France. For this reason he was raised later on as saint.
The well known abroad holiday, brightly described by Ernest Hemingway in his famous novel “La Fiesta”, that was written under strong impression of the festival attended on his first visit on 7th of July 1923, is organized on yearly basis and lasts 7 days, till 14th of July.
Initially this holiday was set as fair, dedicated to Christian holidays that in turn have deep pagan roots. However, regardless frequent changes of power (from the VIII to XVI centuries it was many times conquered by different powers like the Maur empire, Kingdom of Francs, Castilla) the local aristocracy managed to organize in summer several fairs according to saints like San Juan, san Pedro and, by the end of July – Santiago. These fairs were settled as to maintain cultural and economic life of the region.
There is a document source that asserts that on 10th of October 1324 Carl I of Navarra (VI of France) has set a 7 day holiday fair celebrating the end of the working year (as the main branch in the economy was agriculture) and dedicated it to Saint Fermin. After half of century starting with 1381 the king was frequently handing in enfranchisements at this festivity. Later on, by the petition of the local aristocracy to the religious management invoking the bad weather in autumn the San Fermin holiday was transferred to the middle of summer, when the weather is best in the region, on the 7th day of the 7th month. Nevertheless there is Sanfermineschiquis holiday kept with the occasion of end of harvest of crops.
Another document issued on 7th of July of 1591 by the Pamplona Major house, has announced: “The spear tournament on the castle place; theatre: The comedy and tragedy of the merry San Fermin; Dances and festival on the streets; and of course - Corrida”.
During years this holiday stayed unchanged as local festival with fairs, religious processions and street dances and shows, until it was discovered for the world by famous Hemingway.
After the Second World War the festival started to become the more and more popular outside the region. Before 1950 the festival was attended mostly by pamplonees who were joined by people from the villages surrounding the city. With 100 pesetas (less than a euro) people could spend the whole week drinking wine (usually of bad quality) and watching shows in the streets, usually having dinner at home. First they were gathering on the place of Consistorial in order to greet the members of the Local Council and to follow them to the church of San Lorenzo. There in the San Fermin’s chapel every year on 6th of July at 4.30 PM they participated in the pray and then return to the place in front of major house.
Last half of century the holiday has changed substantially. It has fully lost its religious part and the counselors’ train to the church and back turned into a protest act. Due to mass disturbance this ceremony has been canceled at all in 1991 (however there was a try to reestablish it in 1996, but without success).
Where has the 100 pesetas that “our grannies were spending during the whole week” gone? Today Pamplona is one the most expensive city in Spain. The local people don’t consume cheep wines anymore, but prefer old branded ones. The most popular beverage on Sanfermines now is champagne. Before becoming famous Pamplona had about ten taverns, while in our days there are thousands of bars and restaurants with delicious dishes and shocking prices. The population has raised 10 times comparing to the middle of XX century, while its arena, where the corridas take place is the third biggest in the world.
Thanks to Hemingway, who considered Spain due to corrida, the last country where the men can prove their virtue, the Sanfermines attracts every year the more and more foreigners, that by some estimations exceed the local population during the festival. Moreover, some of pamplonees prefer to leave the city for this period in order to avoid the crowd and mess. Although there are no official statistics, some organizations estimate more than 300 000 of people on the streets of the city of about half square kilometer surface.
Mainly Sanfermines is famous for traditional daily driving in of bulls from the yard on Plaza Santo Domingo on 850 meters way to the arena where the bulls will be killed in corrida, a run held every morning at 8 o’clock that lasts about 3 minutes. Initially the herdsmen where those who drove the bulls. Little by little, during yours, young men started to take part in this action willing to prove their courage and bravery. However in our days the tourists (usually drunk) are the ones running in front and alongside the bulls, sometimes with lethal results.
Another trait of Sanfermines is white shirts and pants fastened with a red belt and a red tie worn by the participants. During the festival there is much wine drunk and poured on the people – the main entertainment out of bulls’ run and corrida time. As the hotels are usually over-booked several months before, lots of drunk and dirty tourists can be seen sleeping on the street benches and even on the ground in parks.
Although the majority of tourists consider the morning bulls’ runs as the cherry on the cake of Sanfermines, the main element of the festival still is the corrida organized every evening on the Plaza de Toros, built specially for this purpose in 1922. All the tickets are sold almost one year before. Interesting fact: the locals don’t like corrida so the arena is closed during the year. And this tendency is common for whole Spain. Thus main attendees of “rites of slaying the last most dangerous standing animal” are foreigners.
The arena is basically split into two sides: the sunny one and the shadow, more prestigious one. People on the sunny side usually prefer to have fun with friends instead of watching what happens on the arena. They gather in groups, drink and pour wine, sing, dance and scream out slogans and hymns. Those from the shadow side come to watch the action, to show out and look to other people. Usually they wear elegant clothes and nice hats and many of them have binoculars.
One of the characteristics making Pamplona’s corridas special is about the 48 bulls participating (=sled) in Sanfermines. They are carefully selected and brought from Andalucía and central Castilla. Comparing to corridas from other places in Spain where the bulls are kept several days before in stalls by the arenas, these ones are kept sequently in three different places: first in Gaz stalls (a district where a gas plant was long time ago located), the small stalls on the Santo Domingo street, where the morning run starts from, and the stall by the arena as such. Due to these facts, the experts assert that the bulls in Pamplona are more dangerous falling down much less during the corrida.
However, every year the protests of the animals protectors against corridas take place in front of arenas all ever Spain. Thus for more than ten years the arena in Barcelona is not used for its proper destination anymore.
