I've been meaning to blog about the craziness that were Las Hogueras for a while now but haven't got round to it funnily enough.
After 4 fantastic days in Madrid, followed by a 6 hour bus journey I arrived in Alicante tired and, well, ready for bed. Cue my complete surprise when I turned into my street to find an open air restaurant banging out 'pimping tunes' literally outside my front door. Not only that but there was a huge statue which was attracting a ridiculous amount of Spanish children to say it was nearly midnight. It was to be the start of a LOUD and tiring week...
My street, upon my return from Madrid
Every year the Hogueras de San Juan (or Fogueres in Valenciano) are celebrated in various Spanish towns on the 24th June. Alicante is renowned to be the best place to experience the fiesta and quite rightly too. On the weekend preceding the 24th June, statues are erected throughout the city. These statues are meant to be ugly and many of them satirize the news/polititians/popular media figures. Throughout the week, the statues are left to revel in their own ugliness, before they are all burnt to the ground at midnight after 24th June, a public holiday here in Alicante. You'd never get that in the UK, health and safety risk, etc, etc, blah blah blah.
Wandering around
In the week preceding 24th June, there are daily mascletas-public fireworks which took place a mere 5 minutes from my front door. I've never really understood why fireworks are necessary during the day- you can't see anything! You could bloody hear it all over the city though, felt more like a war zone than a celebratory event. Naturally, I made the most of fiesta week (I wasn't working which made it easier) so went out every night. Open air clubs were set up (they were about 3 big ones in the city), my favourite being Havana Club leading from the centre down to the port. Made a nice change from Alicante's Carpe Diem bar where we go dancing every weekend anyway.
Crowds for the daily mascleta
On the 23rd June, there was the international parade, whereby international communities living in Alicante and the surrounding area showcase their talent- this year there were mariachi bands, flamenco dances and Brazilian drumming (my personal favourite).
So, on the evening of 24th June, the ugly statues get burned. At midnight la Palmera (palm firework) is launched from the Castillo de Santa Barbara (castle). This is the signal to start burning the statues, beginning with those in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (town hall square). It's a busy night for the firefighters who have to hose down all of the statues, as well as soaking all the public intelligent/crazy/delete as appropriate enough to stand close to the inferno. As I said to my friend 'It's a pyromaniac's paradise'. After watching la Palmera from the beach, we quickly moved into the Plaza del Ayuntamiento to witness the burning of 2 statues. Got a bit wet...
Let the burning commence...
The day ended up in Havana street disco, had a fantastic night singing and dancing and reveling. Now as this is Spain and not the UK, the fiesta did not end there. There were fireworks on the beach the 5 nights that followed the 24th. Fan-bloody-tastic! 20 minutes of ooh-ing and aah-ing every night- think I've had my firework fix for the year anyway.
Ready for fireworks on the beach.
Las Hogueras. Had I not come to Alicante, I would not have known anything about it. This is one of the things I love about Spain-towns and provinces have different fiestas, different public holidays, different things to experience. For tourists/travelers like myself it's great to witness, yet it explains why Spanish national identity is at the forefront of politics in this country- there's so much regional pride that it is often hard to visualise a united Spain. Of course this is more apparent in Catalunya and the País Vasco (Basque Country), but coming to Alicante (part of the Valenciano Community) has made me realise regional pride is everywhere. And why not celebrate it?
No comments:
Post a Comment