Yet another severely delayed post....sorry for that. Anyway, due to all of the recent partying in my life lately, this post is specifically dedicated to the amazing fiestas that I've been able to participate in.
My personal favorite..Fiestas de Benissa (Festes if I wanna be geographically correct and speak in Valencian).
The fiestas in Benissa were....wild. To say the least. It was 10 days filled with non stop fun. Actually, a little bit too much for my taste, and that's saying something considering how much I love to party. Basically, they started on April 20th (my birthday) and continued until the end of April. This April was probably the best month of my life, seeing as I had only 1 week of school, and then spring break, seeing my parents, and the fiestas.
Anyway, basically every day was jam packed with as many fun things as you could possibly imagine. Discomobiles? Check. Parades? Check. Paella? Check. Not to mention bulls, which of course every good Spanish party is in dire need of.
Basically it went like this: Every day during the day there would be something with the festeros. The festeros are the 18yr olds who sort of "come out" during this festival. They are presented formally, and then a queen is elected. They all wear the traditional Valenician clothing during some of the festivities. Normally the festeros would have a parade and dress up on floats, or walk around the town in their outfits. Then, during the night, I would meet up with my friends at the "local" which was basically an abandoned building next to the plaza that my whole grade rented out to drink and hang out. Every night we would hang out there until the discomobile or band started. There was actually a semi-famous band that came too! Every night was spent dancing and just having an awesome time with my friends in general. I stayed at my grandmothers' apartment right in town, so I would just walk home when I wanted to. Most nights I came home at 6 or 7 in the morning, when it was light outside!
Of course, there were more traditional aspects of it as well. For example, la día de la purissima was spent in the church, to celebrate "la xiqueta purissima" (my towns' saint). That evening, the whole town came out in their Sunday best and bought a long white candle. Then, the festeros paraded through the back streets of my town in their long black gowns with a black lace veil. La purisimma xiqueta (which was a golden statue) was then carried through town on the backs of police officers. Then, every single person in my town paraded behind her on two single file lines with their candles lit up. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Just picture every person of your little town holding a candle in the night, following their saint through the back cobblestonded streets. I'll never forget that.
Also, there were the bulls. The last 3 days of the fiestas, they shut down the plaza and transformed it into some sort of ring. They blocked off the entrances with wooden stands and the whole plaza was lined in metal cages that you could stand in and above. Basically, they let out the bull in the plaza, and the men (mainly 20 something yr olds) would run in front of the bull and tease it so that it would chase it. I was absolutely terrified that someone would be stabbed. Every time a bull would come near a person, I'd shreak with terror, much to the amusement of everyone around me. As if letting loose a bull isn't dangerous enough, at the end of the night they would light its' horns on fire and then let it loose in the plaza to chase around whomever was stupid enough to get in its' way. One night they actually did "running of the bulls" and let all of them out at the same time in a back street in my town. A lot of people (including some of my guy friends) then ran in front of all of them! It was terrifying to watch, but luckily no one got hurt.
On one of the days, they made a paella the size of a fountain that was used to feed the whole town! Another day my class got dressed up as bugs and walked around in our own parade. Unfortunately, I missed that because I fell asleep due to being out so late the night before. I was honestly surprised at how much energy these people had. I honestly could not keep up. I had to sit a few things out because if I didn't I'd have collapsed. It was like these people were the party version of the energizer bunny. I guess it makes sense though, the Spanish are born party people.
Basically, it was 10 of the best days of my life. No school, being with my friends, and partying all day, what's not to like?
