sorry that i didn’t blog yesterday or the day before ): i was kind of busy and i just completely forgot about it somehow. anyways, the second aspect of the trip to Spain that i’d like to cover is the Midsummer-ish festival that is unique to the city of Alicante. the festival itself wasn’t at all like Sweden’s traditional Midsummer celebrations, i’m just comparing it to that because the purpose is pretty much the same. it takes place over a few days in June, with fireworks and parades and outdoor eating and things like that, but the main night is on the 24th.
the most outstanding thing about the festivals is the bonfires. these, ladies and gentlemen, are not any regular bonfires. for a week or so before this holiday, there are large sculptures made of paper-mâché in different parts of the city, around 40 total. they are painted as well, and very big, and are ridiculously intricate and detailed for the purpose that they serve.
these are some of the sculptures before they met their fate:
the interesting thing about all of these artworks is that the entire purpose of their creation is to be burned down. at midnight there is a single firework, which signals the beginning of the festival, and from that point on sculptures are set aflame all over the city. fireworks shoot from them at the same time as they start burning, and it’s absolutely crazy.
the first one we watched was really big and had an absolutely giant crowd of tourists watching it. it was in the water and was absolutely giant.
before burning:
everyone was starting to get impatient waiting until it finally started burning down…
as you can see, it’s kind of terrifying. the fact that the sculpture featured a freaking clown and some masks did not help at ALL. it was really apocalyptic, my mom and i thought, because as this was not the first one to go off there were giant billows of smoke coming from several different places and completely smoking up the sky, and there were giant fires in different places, and people all over the place. it was surreal and freaky and really, really cool.
i might mention that before it burned fireworks shot from it into the air, and there were little firefighting boats spraying it to make sure it didn’t burn down some boats or something.
the next one we watched was actually cooler. it was more true to the culture and real, instead of being photographed by swarms of tourists.
before burning:
i didn’t get any pictures of this one burning, only a video.
this one was extremely freaky. and also very awesome. it was like the other one except instead of all the tourists there was a group of screaming Spanish people getting sprayed by a firefighter with a hose, the guys waving their t-shirts above their heads. also, as well as a giant billow of smoke pouring into the sky there were craploads of embers and pieces of burning cardboard pouring down from the sky. we all got little spots of ashes on us, my mom actually got burnt… we had all like run back to avoid being hit by the embers but i mean you couldn’t avoid it.
it was also funny to put into perspective how completely not allowed that would have been in the us. this giant fire was located DIRECTLY by a tree, and between buildings just in the middle of a regular city block. the massive amounts of safety hazards would have already completely made it not even something to be considered. my mom and i think that also there would be the issue of sensitive parents being offended by burning sculptures replicating human figures, and bringing in issues like 9/11. just because they do things like that. it would just not happen there. for many different reasons. cultural differences ftw.
it was a really cool thing to get to see, though. the dates for the trip just happened to fall perfectly upon the time of this holiday. we tend to have luck with that sort of thing.
in other news, today i went on a massively long walk all the way from my apartment to my old school and then past there to Haga and around it, and then back to Odenplan and then i took the train home. all of this in very hot, sunny weather. it was really fun. i love going on long walks.
my summer is going swell :D swell-ly? i don’t think swell is an adverb.
oki doki byebye <33
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