Festa Major: Food and Fun

To say that in Figueres they celebrated their festa major for ten days is to exaggerate.  There were a couple of days (work days) when there was only the odd institutional act.  But the ten days began on a Friday and in additional to the two weekends, it included a legal holiday (1^st of May) so that the following day, a Friday, was a pont (bridge) and many people didn’t have to work that day either. 

A festa major -- especially one that runs for ten days -- is many things to many people.  Every city, town, and village has at least one important festival a year, usually celebrating the feast day of their patron saint.  Some towns have more than one patron saint.  Whatever religious significance these festivals might have had is somewhat diluted in the modern age.  Besides the special mass and floral tribute, for the most part the festes are about having fun and are designed so that everyone will find something to enjoy.

Although I hadn’t planned on going to see the children’s parade, it was so cute I ran home to get my camera and take some (disappointing) pictures that I posted last week.  What I was looking forward to was dancing sardanes, which I did on two different days.

People often place their bags and jackets in the
center of the circle.  But here someone put their cane
so they could dance unencumbered!

 There was a night parade that I didn’t attend, several concerts, some medieval shenanigans with horses that I didn’t go to see either.  Nor did I venture out to see the closing fireworks although I could hear them from home.  The cats were not amused.  In fact, I passed up most of the activities.  Nevertheless I enjoyed quite a few.

I saw the animal rescue people (and dogs) and the doggie audience, a motorcade of Seat 600s, a fun fair, the chess club, a meeting of lace-making clubs, an arts and crafts fair, a medieval fair (which was also an arts and crafts fair), two food fairs,.  I missed the castells (human towers) because I was busy watching the adoptable dogs do tricks (we all have our priorities).  I would say that a good time was had by all.

The Seat people loved that I was taking pictures
of them and were all waving

Artisan-made shoes

Some dish from Galicia

The famous Mediterranean diet

Paella

Octopus, my favorite.  That's what I
had for lunch

Festa Major -- Community Spirit

The ads started recently.  This year’s festa major (main festival) was going to be ten days long and have 200 activities.  And I thought to myself, “Geez, can’t these people think of anything else except partying?”

It was day one and I was walking towards the Rambla to do my errands.  I found the streets closed off to cars and the children’s parade underway.  It was cute as can be and there I was without my camera.  So I ran back home to get it and devoted the next hour to trying to capture how splendid it was that over 1000 children, from most, if not all the schools in Figueres, were costumed and parading through the streets, accompanied by homemade floats pulled by farmers driving their tractors.  Anyone not in the parade was standing on the sidewalks admiring and cheering and clapping along with the music that was blasting through loudspeakers placed all along the route.  My photos didn’t come close to doing them justice.  I need to practice the art of elbowing your way through a crowd to get to the front.  And probably other techniques too.

People here do like to party.  But they also like to take part in their community.  Festes include some professional entertainment, but they also benefit from a tremendous amount of citizen participation.  This is true at all the festes, from the smallest villages to Barcelona the capital.

Sardanes (the Catalan national dance) are scheduled three different times during the festa, danced in front of the city hall that has been decorated for the party.  I’ve already attended two of these and have danced both times.  While I’m dancing, I feel part of the community -- a feeling that unfortunately ends abruptly when the dancing does.   

Festa Major, Part 2

La Santa Creu, the festa major, wasn’t all food.  To help work off calories there was dancing, parades, and castells – the human towers.  The public doesn’t build those towers, but it takes some energy to stand for more than an hour and watch the teams that do and then to applaud each time they succeed (as well as those times when they don’t).  The public does, however, dance the sardana, and yours truly, twinkle toes, joined in for one.

 

Festivals here are not particularly commercial.  There may be food to buy and this one had arts and crafts stands, but there is no corporate sponsorship (or if there is, it isn't visible), no souvenirs are sold, and few, if any, activities or performances charge an entrance fee.   The money to put it on comes from the town hall and the Catalan government, and many of the activities such as the parades with the giants and the castells, are put on and manned by the public. 

 

The band that plays the sardanes
is called a cobla

Don't look for me, I'm not there

 

 

 

The parade had a police escort at the head and end.
The tail end officer made entertaining some of the
children part of his duties. 

He made a few kids very happy

 

Getting ready.  Wrapping up to protect
his back and to give those climbing over him
somewhere to get a toe hold

The musicians who accompany castells
always play the same tune once the castell
is partially built and has been deemed
viable by the cap de colla (head of the team)