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SPANISH TRADITIONS

Priest outlaws coffins at Spain’s strange ‘Living Dead’ festival

The new priest of a Galician village famed for holding a 'Living Dead' procession in which live people are paraded around in open coffins has banned this year's bizarre spectacle, claiming that it has more to do with witchcraft than religion.

Priest outlaws coffins at Spain's strange 'Living Dead' festival
A 'living dead' woman is carried in an open casquet by her relatives during the annual "Procession of the Shrouds", but not without first protecting herself from the sun by holding an umbrella and wearing sunglasses. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

The Os Mortos Vivos (Living Dead) fiesta held in the village of Santa Marta de Ribarteme in Galicia (northwest Spain) will not be quite as peculiar this year.

That’s because the village’s new priest has decided to ban the day’s star tradition – the Procession of the Shrouds – which sees living people carried around in open coffins through the packed streets.

Usually those who ‘play dead’ in the caskets are locals who have escaped death in real life and it’s their relatives who carry the coffins on their shoulders.

But according to el cura (the priest), the custom has lost its religious significance and morphed into something more sinister.

People who have escaped death in real life lie in caskets and are carried in procession by relatives as a gesture of gratitude. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

Speaking to La Sexta TV channel, Father Francisco Javier explained he was against the tradition because, whilst it was popular, it generates “a lot of superstition, a lot of witchcraft, a lot of nonsense”.

The vast majority of Ribarteme’s villagers don’t want to lose this strange ritual which takes place every year on July 29th on the feast day of the local parish’s most important saint, Santa Marta.

One man described the decision as “horrible… because I’ve been coming here [for the event] since I was a boy”.

“It’s only the priest who wants to ban it, it’s a disgrace because it’s a tradition that’s always been like this,” another woman commented.

The Mayor of Santa Marta de Ribarteme, Xosé Manuel Rodríguez, recognised the event as being of cultural interest, and was more optimistic about recovering the spooky tradition.

“We are sure that if it will return,” Rodríguez told La Sexta. “We are going to recover a tradition that all of us would like to see continue”.

A smiling woman is carried in a coffin by relatives during the annual “Procession of the Shrouds”. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

Unknown origins

The peculiar tradition of carrying living people around in open coffins has long taken place in the neighbouring Pontevedra villages of As Neves and Santa Marta de Ribarteme.

Some say it came about as a way for people to give thanks to Saint Martha for saving them or a loved one from death, an illness or an accident – or to implore her to do so in future. 

But no one is truly sure about the procession’s origins.

According to a book about the casket carrying published in As Neves, the tradition could date back to the Medieval Crusades. 

Nobles who left Galicia for the Middle East discovered in France the story of Saint Martha, whose brother Lazarus was raised from the dead when Jesus visited their home, according to the Bible’s account.

When they returned, they thanked the saint for having spared them from death by occupying their own coffins, according to this book.  

Expect to see plenty of emotion at the Procession of the Shrouds, even from the ‘living dead’. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

Another explanation is offered by Carlos Hernández, a sociologist who wrote a thesis about the procession.

In the past, people would buy their own coffin while they were still alive when they had the means or when a family member was ill, he said.   

If a seriously ill person survived, they would donate their coffin to the local parish for those who could not afford one.

The procession is similar to other rituals in Spain that depict the fight being good and evil, life and death, according to Hernández.

“Its about daring to stare death in the face, looking at Evil, so that life wins,” he argued.

Another village in Galicia also stages a procession with coffins, but in this case they are empty.

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SPANISH TRADITIONS

A quick guide to Alicante’s Hogueras de San Juan festival

Alicante will soon celebrate the arrival of summer with Las Hogueras de San Juan, the biggest festival of the year in the Costa Blanca city.

A quick guide to Alicante's Hogueras de San Juan festival

From June 20th-24th the whole city of Alicante explodes into a joyous rumpus of colour and light, where the main protagonist is fire.

Many cities in Spain have a fascination with fire around the festival of San Juan (Saint John) and Alicante is no different. Expect hordes of firecrackers, ear-splitting explosives, crackling bonfires, and of course hundreds of colourful fireworks lighting up the sky with fiery rain.

READ ALSO: Goats, horses and fire: the weird ways Spain celebrates San Juan

The event has a lot in common with Valencia’s more famous Fallas Festival, which takes place in March each year, yet it also has its origins in the summer solstice celebrations.

Alicante’s Hogueras festival has elements of Valencia’s Fallas traditions. Photo: JOSE JORDAN / AFP

 

The festival in Alicante began as a way for people to burn objects they no longer had any use for ahead of the summer season, making way for the new, and officially became a city celebration in 1928.

During the day, from June 21st- 22nd, parades take place through the city streets with locals dressed in traditional costumes, playing folk tunes and sometimes carrying elaborate religious statues. The main event is the ofrenda de Flores a la Virgen del Remedio, where flowers are taken as offerings to the Cathedral, where they get turned into huge floral images on the façade.

Each day at 2pm, there is a frenzy of noise, ground-shaking explosions and plumes of smoke white smoke during what’s known as the Mascletà in the Plaza de los Luceros, and by night there are carnival-like parades such as the Cabalgata del Ninot.

An ornate “hoguera” is set alight in Alicante. Photo: JOSE JORDAN / STR / AFP

A Carnival-like queen is selected from eager participants, called the bellea del foc or the Beauty of the Fire and elaborate costumes are worn. 

The highlight of these series of celebrations are the hogueras themselves, like Valencia’s fallas – huge cardboard and papier-mâché colouful sculptures, depicting fairytales, folklore and mystical legends, as well as political satire.

Bonfires on the beach during the San Juan celebrations in Alicante. Photo: JOSE JORDAN / STR / AFP

These sculptures are placed all over the city, until the culmination of the celebration on June 24th. At midnight explosives are attached to each hoguera and they are simultaneously set alight in a spectacular display known as the night of the “Cremà” or burning.

When each has burned to almost cinders, the city’s fight fighters come out with their hoses to douse everything in water, including the crowds who come in their bathing suits ready to take part in the communal “Banyà” and to cool down after a hot night of fire.

A man jumps over a bonfire during the annual San Juan celebrations at a beach in Alicante. (Photo by JOSE JORDAN / AFP)

This is accompanied by riotous beach parties and beach bonfires, when locals aim to jump over the flames in order to ward off negative spirits, bring good luck and then cleanse themselves and wash away their sins with a dip in the sea. 

But, the fiesta is far from over, as from June 25-29 right after Las Hogueras a jubilant firework competition takes place on El Postiguet beach

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