Tuesday, 19 March 2013

19/03: BURNING OF THE SARDINE

The end of the Carnival is always celebrated with a final Fiesta .... the Burning of the Sardine!

Here in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, the huge model Sardine is wheeled through the Town accompanied by hoardes of wailing, crying men and women dressed in Black.    All accompanied by the inevitable drumming groups

The Sardine is taken down to one of the small beaches in the Town where it is Burned/Cremated and then we are treated to a firework display on the beach/in the Sea.

A few pictures

The Sardine at rest at the top of Town, awaiting the crowd of mourners before starting its journey to the Beach.  As the Carnival theme this year was 'Caribbean' the Sardine has been dressed up accordingly ... bless





One of the many drummers .... during Carnivals/Fiestas its quite normal for men to dress as women and vice versa!


Some of the mourners







They've reached the beach



The Town Beach was jam packed with spectators ...


The last couple of 'Burnings' we've seen have been a bit slow winded and the sardine has taken forever to be cremated.   This year the Fire Brigade guys really doused the sardine in some kind of inflammable liquid.    Here's one of them applying the torch





and the sardine was gone in a matter of minutes ....



the fireworks were some of the best we've seen here .... a brilliant spectacle.   Lots of oooohhs and aaaaahhhs to be heard

Sunday was also St Patrick's Day, another well celebrated event here on the island where there are lots of Irish homeowners and holidaymakers.    Plenty of folk dressed in Green all round Town

Yesterday was noticeably quiet everywhere ..... lots of subdued people shaking off hangovers methinks!

Anyway, we've been out and about a lot so plenty more photos to follow but I'm not able to leave comments on anybody's Blogs at the moment for some reason.    Will need to get David to have a look at the settings as he has been working on a Blog/Website for somebody and I think he may be to blame :-)

So - I am reading all your posts and will get back to posting on your Blogs asap.


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6 comments:

  1. Peggy19 March 2013 at 20:41

    Looks like a very interesting festival. I don't understand the purpose of the weird costumes though LOL. What a spectacular way to end the festival too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jo19 March 2013 at 20:59

    Interesting tradition, the sardine. In Alicante, they made a political statement with a huge papier maché statue (it was two huge foxes one offer the other a wormy apple) and then they set that alight at the end of the day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cathy Holtom20 March 2013 at 06:58

    I will be contacting the Cruelty to Sardines Society asap.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sue Clinker20 March 2013 at 10:10

    ha ha

    The sardine was pretty this year ... I did feel a bit guilty when it went up in flames LOL

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jan21 March 2013 at 12:03

    Whooo hooo! Looks like I'm finally able to post. Always fun to see photos of other places - thanks, Sue!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sue Clinker21 March 2013 at 14:06

    Hi Jan
    Not sure what the problem has been but I was unable to leave comments on other people's Blogs for a couple of days. Kept asking me for an identity and when I gave one, just deleted my comments!!
    Guess it was a general Blogger problem.


    ReplyDelete

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