Running
for life in Spain
By Oscar Montealegre
On-line Forty-Niner
 Whether
you are into bullfighting, partying like
a madman or you have a desire to cheat death,
then Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls festival
is the most suitable site that offers all
of the above and much, much more.
The
fiesta starts every July from the 7th to
the 14th. The official name of this festival
is ‘San Fermines,’ dedicated to Saint Fermin
who was martyred by the Roman Catholic Spaniards
when bulls dragged him through the streets
of Pamplona.
Each
year, thousands of people throughout the
world flock to Northern Spain to dance,
consume voluminous amount of red wine, xalimocho
(wine and coke), bottles of Sangria and
San Miguel beer and, of course, to run with
the glorious bulls.
The
Running of the Bulls gained worldwide attention
with Hemingway’s classic, “The Sun Also
Rises.” However, some Spaniards are now
disgruntled by the popularity of the book
because they claim that it has caused the
festival to lose its authenticity by the
influx of foreigners that now participate
in the Running of the Bulls.
In
“The Sun Also Rises” Hemingway writes, “At
noon of Sunday, the 6th of July, the fiesta
exploded. There is no other way to describe
it.” Hemingway could not have been more
correct because there is no other way to
describe it. One must experience it to realize
the nature of Spain’s wildest and most famous
of festivals.
Obviously,
the most popular event during the Running
of the Bulls occurs when men and women run
for their lives from the bulls. The Spaniards
call this tradition the ‘encierro,’ and
they have been doing it for centuries.
The
runners gather at Santo Domingo, which is
the starting point of the ‘encierro.’ In
Spain, women are not allowed to run from
the bulls because the ‘encierro’ is a Spanish
rite of manhood. Nevertheless, some women
rebel against the tradition and run anyway.
While waiting for the bulls, the runners
sing, “A San Fermines pedimos, por ser nuestro
patron, nos guie en el encierro dandono
su bendicion,” Which translates to “we ask
San Fermin, as our patron, to guide us through
the Bull Run and give us his blessing.”
At
8 a.m. the rocket is fired, which indicates
that the bulls are released and it is in
the best interest of the runners that they
begin running for their lives. Three intense
minutes of madness begins with six bulls
running down cobblestone streets chasing
the thousands of runners while thousands
of intelligent people are behind the wood
fences cheering for the runners, or in some
cases the bulls.
Eight
hundred and twenty-five yards stand between
the starting point and the bull ring that
represents safety, 825 yards in which the
runners are risking their lives and limbs,
825 yards where bulls have killed Americans
and Australians, paralyzed Spaniards and
severely injured Frenchmen.
Hemingway
also said that the best and smartest way
to do the ‘encierro’ is to watch from a
secured place. Hemingway may be right again,
however, the adrenaline that comes from
running from the bulls in Pamplona is as
pure as it ever can be.
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