EL ROCIO FESTIVAL.

MONDAY 24TH MAY 2010.

For most of the year the small hamlet of El Rocio is as deserted a place as you could wish to find, its wide sandy streets are lined with impressively large houses, but they are usually uninhabited – except at the time of the pilgrimage. The hamlet is situated in North East Spain, just below the border with Portugal, outside Huelva; it has a population of around 700 people but for the weekend of the “ Romeria Del Rocio ” it comes alive when over a million people throng the streets, the largest Catholic festival in the world !

The traditional pilgrimage can be traced back to the 15th century when the statue of the Virgin Mary, “ La Virgen El Rocio ” was discovered; it is kept in the enormous white church, the Sanctuario de Nuestra Senora de El Rocio – simply referred to as the “ Ermita ” Those impressively large houses in the village that I mentioned are in fact bases for the 95 brotherhoods,hermandades,who are the senior members of each romeria; the pilgrims “ Rocieros ” arrive with horses, wagons and elaborate flower-bedecked carriages and most of the female pilgrims are dressed in bright flamenco-style dresses, the men have short riding type jackets – traje corto – and wide brimmed boleros.

During the day the processions are chanting,clapping,beating drums,tambourines,and playing flutes and guitars; the whole thing is carried out to the accompaniment of fire crackers and shouts of “ Viva la Reina de la Marisima ” Long live the Queen of the marshland ! All this takes place with traditional singing and dancing, going on for hours, with the smell of fried peppers, prawns and sherry in the air; they also unofficially baptize the first time Rocerieros.

The climax of the whole festival comes in the early hours of Monday morning when the statue of the virgin is carried out of the church and paraded around the village; its frantic passing through the hands of the brotherhoods at times gets out of control as the crowds attempt to touch it and pass very small children above their heads at the same time; the whole experience is a strangely Spanish combination of religious fanaticism and serious partying !!

Needless to say we watched it all on the TV.

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