Entierro de la Sardina

Hey Everyone! Yet another blog entry! this one is from about 3 weeks ago now during the Easter holidays! Murcia has a festival called Entierro de la Sardina! which is literally burial of the sardine! Strange name for a festival don't you think? Well let me explain! You see here in Spain Quaresma or Lent is a lot more known than it is in say New Zealand or North America! But bascially Lent (in English) is the 40 days/6 weeks that lead up to Easter and traditionally is the preparation period for believers of Christ in which people fast/prayer etc! Anyways it seems to be quite a big catholic tradition which is probly why it's more known here in Spain! moving along! Traditionally people here would give up eating meat for the 40 day period and could only eat fish! Thus at the end of these 40 days they say Adios, Goodbye to the fish and dig into the meat again! Of course this is kind of ancient history! we talked about it a bit in class but no1 observes lent anymore however they still have a Fiesta to celebrate the end of it! Seems fair right?

Interestingly enough they don't bury any fish! this is a figure of speach, what they actually do is Burn a giant sculpture of a Sardine! And of course what is a spanish fiesta without a parade? More to come! check out these pics of everything!

Here is this year's fish that is lucky enough to be burnt! It's quite tall! you can see it up at least 3/4 stories high!

OK so during the parade it kinda turns into a huge free for all, crazy fighting match when they give out toys to the public! Really quite an interesting experience! they have these huge trucks that you can see in this picture crammed fall of toys, balls, stationary, beauty products etc and at the end of the parade they throw them out to everyone! there must have been about 15 trucks like this! I caught myself a soccer ball and a couple other things but really it's so dangerous i am surprised no1 gets seriously injured! (at least that i've heard of) Anyways before the parade began i got a VIP entrance to take a picture in front of one the trucks! :D

Some Band Members dressed up from the movie Mars Attacks! They were pretty cool in the parade to be honest!

Here's a nice shot of the street i was in! as you can see lot's of people and also it rained! Can you believe it?!

Spongebob! lol yea and dora! XD

These are the robots from the movie robots! XD pretty cool!

I'm not sure who these fuys are! rather strange storm trooperS? o.O

Lots of marching bands, whistles, flags etc!

Awesome dragon with fireworks coming out its mouth! and no, that's no me you can hear! XD

Oh these were the Mars attacks guys! they were a rhythmic band! and then a whale XD

SOme kinda cool transformer guys, i really don't know what to call them! how bout light people on stilts? anyways you can see lots of light show type things going on in the background!

Kinda random video! light things saying 'La Sardina 2012'

Bando de la Huerta

Heeeeeeeeey Everyone!

Well this is a surprise! more than 1 blog entry in less than a week! hahaha it's because i've got so much stuff to catch up on so i need to shake a leg! Well this is part 2 of my Easter holidays! Probly the most important festival here in Murcia is Bando de la Huerta! Translating it would be weird! kind of like proclamation of the orchid! i dunno! hahaha basically there is a lot of tradition here with Murcia being an agricultural region of Spain and during Bando the Huertanos (the people who work in the orchids) come to the city with all their spring produce etc! Basically it's now just a big festival which pretty much all of Murcia comes out to participate! (or it sure feels that way). The day is really cool and lots of people enjoy it! unfortunately there are a lot of accidents and crazy amounts of young people drinking! The red cross medics have stations posted everywhere! I think after a few hours it gets a bit much!

So like my last post i will simply add a bunch of photos/vids and talk about anything i feel is important underneath! Let's begin!

Lots of people in the streets! Just about all of Murcia comes out this day!

Horses lol

The Cathedral

This is a plaza outside the Cathedral! as you can see lots of people are wondering around

OK so u've probly noticed lots of people wearing outfits! these are the outfits of the huertanos, or the orchid workings! traditional costumes! in the background are some sort of giant vases! these were typical vases to store waters, oils etc!

On your left is a Barraca! they set up these big open type structures all over the city! it's actually pretty impressive! a traditional barraca is a farm house but now they are known as these things where you go to eat! here they serve traditional Murcian food! they are very popular and you have to wait forever to get into one! they also have quite a few private ones for special organizations!

Even the dogs dress up in costume! XD

This is the Gran Via, a main kinda road in Murcia before they had the parade! Yes! of course there was a parade! XD

Horses with spanish flags!

This float was called 'a momment in the orchid'

making bread! thought that was pretty nifty! :D

Caracols! or Snails!

Ok! let me explain these things! these are silk worms! and they use to be a major part of the Murcian industry here! i think they might be more like caterpillas though cause every1 says they eventually turn into butterflies! It seems like it's fairly common for kids in primary school to have a shoebox full of these! one of my students brought in a box full the other day to show me! they are really cool but creepy at the same time!

An country style wedding!

This guy was pretty cool! check out wat he does next!

Lol take a bow! thank you! thank you very much! :D

Why have i included this picture? lol see if you can guess! (hint look at how hot it is) XD

Needless to say there are lots of animals that come through this parade!

The rather messy street afterwards

Look! it's my bus! :D

Look who it is! XD
Ok! story time! we were sitting at the outside of a roundabout watching firworks and this old 70 year old lady lady starts talking about freeing your mind (i think she was obviously rather drunk) and then she begins to dance out backwards into the 4 lane roundabout and we're watching thinking wat the flip is she doing? and this motorbike comes hurtling round the corner and we can see they are obviously going to collide but then last min he sees her and only just manages to avoid her! it was crazy! thankfully her friend she was with quickly went out and pulled her back in! >.<

And here are some vids for you to enjoy! These have been reduced in size because they take forever to upload, so quality probly isn't fantastic!

This was super cool! i couldn't help but film a little bit!

OK so they have a traditional dance calle La Jota! or the 'J' lol and here are a couple people doing it before the parade! Enjoy!

Horses lol i think my mum will like this!

Another video of La Jota

Lol this isn't really anything imortant but i thought it was pretty crack up!