Pamplona, Spain: It’s time again for the “Running of the Bulls”! This happens each year starting with the second week in July and last one week of joyous celebration, maybe a bit of sipping of the vine and merry making in general.
Why did this tradition begin centuries ago? Well, it seems it started when a butcher shop owner negotiated the purchase a bull for slaughter. The owner of the bull thought it amusing to release the bull in front of the man’s shop which fronted on a narrow street. The butcher was outside to receive the prize meat when the bull charged. From that point the entire village was entertained for some time as the bull chased the butcher through the town.
Now days, the Celebration festival of Sanfermines in honor of San Fermin has attracted world wide attention when dozens of young men are accepted to lead the bulls to the bull ring. It begins with the firing of a rocket at 8:00AM. Minutes later another rocket is fired to notify the runners (50 yards from the bull pen gate) the bulls were released. For over 800 yards the race is on! It was the original intent to lead the bulls in this manner to the famous ring for the evening bull fights. The enticement by running ahead of these surely dangerous animals causes the bulls to become quite accommodating.
If you are wondering if this event is really popular, the answer is with the travel agents world wide. A whopping one million persons go there to attend the running of the bulls in Pamplono each year. Balcones are a prize but parts of the streets are barricaded with heavy board fences to protect the spectators. So if it is your desire to go, make reservations early and put on your party clothes as no one is a stranger there.
Furthermore, if you desire to make the run yourself, you are invited. However, there are some rules to become a ‘contestant’. The first one is you must be eighteen years of age, sober, carry nothing in the runway except a roll of newspaper to attract the bulls, you must start at the beginning and you begin by running backwards toward the bulls to attract their attention; then the race is on. You are especially required to wear proper attire as a contestant. White trousers and shirt, a red scarf to be tied around your waist and a red handkerchief.
It certainly would seem dangerous but not quite so much compared to some of our freeways. Since 1910 there have been only fifteen people killed in the event. Of these there has been only one American killed. He hailed from Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Naturally, there have been numerous injuries but most due to frantic falls or slipping on the cobblestones and even at that, of those fifteen killed five have been fatally injured inside the bull ring after the finish and not on the street run. They were trying to mimic the trained and talented matadors by flashing their red scarves at the bulls.
Not to be outdone, animal rights groups have tried to upstage the running of the bulls just prior by running nude through the streets of Pamplona. They call it “Off with the old, on with the nude”. They feel this will attract attention to the cruelty considered. What it really does is attract a lot of laughs by hoards of enthusiastic party goers.
All of us have heard of this for many years. World wide television reports it as their rating demands in most countries. What is even more interesting is one of the contributing factors that called the MOST attention. It was an author of two books. The fascinating stories by a Nobel Laureate in Literature describing colossal affairs including the celebrations, historical recognition of one of the patron saints of Pamplona and the beginning of the bull fight season.
The novels responsible are on most book shelves today. One is The Sun Also Rises and “Death in the Afternoon” by Ernest Hemmingway.
-Bob Jamison is a columnist for several publications.
jbobalong@yahoo.com
