30th March: Vamos a la playa!

Wednesday was spent catching up on sleep, emails and jobs, and the only time I left the house was to run some errands in the city. Even on Thursday, I only met my friends for a couple of hours to have a drink in a cafe and plan the rest of the holidays. By the end we had a list of things we wanted to do during the rest of Semana Santa and the Fiestas de Primavera, which take place next week.

This Spring Festival leads on from the celebrations of Semana Santa and is particularly special in Murcia, where two other events are also celebrated simultaneously. On the Tuesday of Spring Week is the Banda de la Huerta, an event completely unique to Murcia, which is considered “el botellón más grande del mundo” (the biggest open-air drinking session in the world). Interestingly enough, the event was first organised by a group of students in 1852 as an attempt at mocking the Murcian huerta people – but nowadays it’s exactly the opposite, a celebration of Murcia’s long-standing farming tradition.

The day begins with a floral offering to the Virgen de la Fuensanta, the patron saint of the city, in front of the Cathedral, after which thousands of people in typical huertano dress accompany the Virgin from the city centre. Whilst the young people gather in the streets for botellón, in other areas traditional little houses called barracas, constructed especially for the event, offer local foods and folk concerts. In the afternoon, the Desfile de la Banda de la Huerta takes place, a huge parade in which crowds of people pour into the city’s streets on ox-drawn carts and floats throwing broad beans, black puddings and bread rolls to the spectators. Dancers, musicians and people in costumes and on stilts create an explosion of colour and music.

Throughout the week there are a number of other processions relating to the Entierro de la sardina (Burial of the Sardine). This celebration was also created by students in the year 1850, who used the sardine as a symbol of fasting and abstinence. In 1900 the procession, which had taken place sporadically since its conception, was revived as part of the Murcia Spring Festival. The Burial, which, as in the pagan tradition, is concluded by the burning of an effigy representing regeneration and liberation, acts as a counterpoint to the deprivations of Semana Santa.

The processions themselves are carried out by groups known as ‘sardineros’, who take their names from the gods of Greek and Roman mythology. The groups each select a Gran Pez (Big Fish) and a Doña Sardina (Lady Sardine) as patrons of the festival. The first procession takes place with the arrival of the sardine from one of the region’s districts and is followed by several others such as the Testament and the Sardine’s Wake, leading up to the grand Burial of the Sardine procession on the final Saturday. There are two processions on this day; the morning parade functions as a prelude to the enormous celebration that will take place that night. The evening begins with a great parade of dance troupes, dragons, giants and brass bands from all over the world, following which there is a procession of floats dedicated to the gods of Olympus, during which hundreds of toys are given out to eagerly awaiting children. The festival concludes with the burning of the sardine at the Old Bridge and a spectacular firework display.

It’s no surprise, then, that we abandoned any plans to go away, since there really couldn’t be a better place for us to spend our Easter holidays. Using our tourist brochures, we planned and wrote down all the events we wanted to attend over the following two weeks, before considering it a job well done, sharing a jar of sangria and calling it a day.

On Friday we started early according to our plan, and met in the city centre to watch a Semana Santa parade. However, I’d failed to take into account the fact that my friends, who lived on the opposite end of town, would be coming in a different direction from me, leaving me cut off on the wrong side of the cathedral by the crowds and the procession. Eventually I realised there was nothing for it but to walk to Plaza Santo Domingo meet them from the other side, which involved darting in and out of the procession, yet again. On the plus side, I was given a fair amount of sweets by members of the procession, who had them stashed in the top part of their bizarre costume to give out to spectators.

After almost an hour, I finally reached the spot where my friends were standing and stood to watch the rest of the procession with them. It was the first time we’d seen a parade all the way to the end and, despite my exhausted feet and legs after almost two hours, it was worth it to see the finale. After all the traditional procession members had gone by with their floats and crosses, they were followed by a lady in black mourning dress and people in costumes just like the court dress of Restoration England – although I have no idea what they were actually meant to represent. Then, to the rhythmic beat of military drums, an army procession followed and performed an impressive drill. It was an unexpected but exciting end to the event.

By the time the procession had finished it was 11.30, so we stopped for a drink at a cafe on the cathedral square before heading to Annalisa’s, who was ill, stopping to get her some water and a magazine on the way. After our visit we went our separate ways, and I spent the rest of the day trying to catch up on the mountain of work which was slowly building up.

We made another early start today, as we’d heard the forecast and had decided to make the most of the nice weather by going to the beach. Not realising that everyone would have the same idea, we almost missed the only morning bus, making it by the skin of our teeth. The journey to Mazarrón was unexpectedly long but worth every second for that moment of stepping out onto the hot sand. Despite the slight wind at times, but it stayed warm all day and we were all ecstatic; it felt surreal and heavenly to be lying on a beach in March. At 4pm we took the coach back to Murcia, revived and happy.