an educational post ...

a little background on the San Fermin Festival .. the festival is held in honour of Saint Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona and Navarre as a whole. over the centuries, the saint's festival, the ancient annual fair, the running of the bulls and the subsequent bullfights have all melded together into a 7 day celebration.

the bull running (encierro) is relatively 'new' and only dates as far back as the late 14th century.

the actual bull run happens every morning of the festival at 8am where the runners gather in an area at the beginning of the route, where they sing three times an ode before a statue of San Fermin placed in a niche in a wall there (by the city hall). this year the runners were treated to a woman who flashed the crowd as she watched the race from the comfort of her balcony. by all counts, it was apparently a good 'showing'.

;o)

all competitors are clad in white, with a red handkerchief tied around their necks and a red sash tied around the waist. actually everybody at the festival wore this kind of attire. any combination of red and white - felt like Canada Day at the hill.

the run begins with the letting off of two rockets/bang/cannon. the first cannon announces the release of the bulls from their corral, the second signals that the last bull has left the corral, and the last signifies that the bull have now reached the conclusion of the run at the bull ring (Pamplona's Plaza de Toros) and they are locked up inside the holding pen there.

the whole race is 1/2 a mile.

like anything else, not all information is necessarily provided to those doing the run. so, when a second wave of bulls are let out - the look of pure 'holy shit i'm gonna die' is stamped quite visibly on their faces as they get out of the way.

what you don't know unless you do your 'homework' before hand is that the second wave of bulls are supposed to be calmer and older in order to collect any stragglers from the first 'wave'. stray bulls become extremely agitated when separated from the herd.

again, i'm not sure when some of these amendments were made to the race and how old it is. through time they've changed this event quite a bit. it used to be illegal for people to actually run with the bulls.

the locals don't like it when women do the race because historically this was done to prove one's manhood. hence, the locals find it disrespectful when tourists come through and ignore their traditions.

all in all, i'm really glad that i went. the last day we went to watch the runners in the bull ring. this is when the race is over and they let the bulls out one by one and let them rip at the runners locked in the ring.

i just don't understand the craziness though ... for example, there would be rows upon rows of people kneeling before the gate where they let the bull out - and not move when it was released.

insanity.

the closer people got to the bull, or were hit by the bull, the more they wanted. it's like they wanted to be sent to the hospital.

i get the adrenaline rush, but that kind is just not for me. give me a plane to jump out of instead.