Festival of San Fermín
The festival of San Fermín is a week-long, traditional celebration held annually in the city of Pamplona, Navarre, Spain.
A firework (chupinazo) starts the celebrations and the popular song Pobre de mí [es] is sung at the end.
It is known locally as Sanfermines in Spanish and Sanferminak in Basque and is held in honour of Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre.
During medieval times, the acts included an opening speech, musicians, tournaments, theatre, bullfights, dances or fireworks.
[2] Bullrunning appears in 17th and 18th century, together with the presence of foreigners and the first concerns about excessive drinking and dissolute behaviour during the event.
[citation needed] The fame and the number of foreign visitors it receives every year are related to the description in Ernest Hemingway's book The Sun Also Rises[c] and the reports he made as a journalist.
Examples of these exceptions were a player of the local football team or the president of the "giants and big-heads" group on its 150th years anniversary.
[12] The procession was removed from the festival calendar in 1992 for the sake of public order, as political activists used the "Riau-Riau" to promote clashes with authorities.
Protesting youths had sometimes blocked the way, and it often took up to five hours for the city councilors to walk the 500 meters to the Saint Fermin chapel.
[13] The key day of the festival is July 7 when people accompany the 15th-century statue of Saint Fermin through the old part of Pamplona.
The statue is accompanied by dancers and street entertainers, as well as different political and religious authorities including the city mayor and the Bishop of Pamplona, who leads High Mass before the event.
[14] During procession, a Jota (an ancient traditional dance) is performed for the saint, a rose is offered in the Saint Fermin well, and the gigantes (enormous wood-framed and papier-mâché puppet figures managed from inside) dance while the cathedral bell named María (Mary) peals.
People gather at 23:59 at the City Hall and make as much noise as possible for several hours with drums, cymbals, bowls, whistles, pans, or other objects.
[12][16] After nine days of partying, the people of Pamplona meet in the City Hall Plaza at midnight on July 14, singing the traditional notes of the Pobre de mí ('Poor Me').
The eight giant figures were built by Tadeo Amorena, a painter from Pamplona, in 1860, and represent four pairs of kings and queens of four different races and places (Europe, Asia, America, and Africa).
While big-heads precede the giants and wave their hands at spectators, kilikis run after children, hitting them with a foam truncheon.
[21][22] There are exhibitions and competitions of Basque rural sports every morning in the Plaza de los Fueros, a square close to the city citadel, although they were formerly held in the bullring.
[12] While the origin of this tradition was the necessity to move the bulls from outside the city to the bullring for the bullfight, it is not clear when citizens began to run in front of them.
