This morning I came across some imagery that will stay with me forever.Most mornings I drive to the post office in a small town called Padul. Today, like every other day I turned off the main road into the town centre and then boom!!!
I thought I had driven into a disaster area, a bomb or perhaps a gasoline tanker explosion. If this was indeed a disaster, the locals were behaving very calmly just like any normal day, except people were dragging what appeared to be bunches of wood.
I parked the car and discovered I was in the middle of the second weirdest fiesta I've ever witnessed (see below for the weirdest). The bunches of wood that everyone carried were in fact rosemary, which grows in abundance in this part of Spain. The huge bunches of rosamary were stacked up high - then massive fires were lit in the middle of the streets, all over the town. As you can see some of the fires are big and fierce and as one dies down another will be lit just down the road. Today is a blustery day, and the smoke and fire was being blown every which way! People stood in groups watching and chatting. And that smoke, like a London fog with perfume. I love it, and long may it continue.
Unfortunately, the post office was closed for the fiesta...........but tomorrow I shall try and find out from the friendly man who works there what this local fiesta was all about!
Plaza in the town centre 
The fires
The fireworks
Life size doll
Lunch
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What an interesting "world" with its different customs. I'll be anxious to see what the rosemary was all about. Maybe a new year tradition?
ReplyDeleteI love your epiphany about Daii's crutches; gives a new insight to the viewer!
I always enjoy your colorful blog. See you again!
~alisa R.
Wow, those look like urban combat photos. As for the second fiesta, I've always been a bit squeamish about dolls. . .
ReplyDeleteThat IS an interesting realization about Dali's crutches. An element in his bizarre painting turns out to be a simple farm supply.
(A New Yorker friend of mine, who has since passed on, told me that she was once carrying a huge load of packages out of a store in the city back in the 1940's. As she approached the glass doors, a gentleman held one open for her. When she looked up to thank him she saw it was Salvador Dali!)
Hi Tim
ReplyDeleteThe fire filled fiesta you found in our home village of Padul was the Fiesta de San Sebastian, the patron saint of Padul
You can read about it at the link below...
http://www.bed-and-breakfast-granada.com/San-Sebastian-Padul.html
And, yes, the post office was open this morning.
Glad to have you as a Padulian
Dave