Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Sweetest (and yet most "violent") Festival - Sant Medir 2014

I can't believe this is our 4th round of holidays now.  I remember the first Sant Medir.  We were living over on c/Ventallo and Liam wasn't quite 3 yet so he was still home with me full time.  I was in my office which was at the front of the apartment and I thought I heard hoofs clomping outside.  I took a look and my street, a street in the middle of a city, was full of horses!!  What?????

It wasn't til my babysitter came later that morning that I found out what was going on.  It was the festival of Sant Medir, or the sweetest festival.  A day filled with horses, batucada, floats (I use this term loosely) and lots and lots of hard candies being thrown to the crowds all around.

I love this holiday.  I'm not sure what it is about it, but I love it.  Everyone here gets in to it - young and old alike.  You'll see people along the streets during the day with umbrellas tipped upside down to catch the candy being thrown from the floats.  Everyone is in a celebratory mood and how can you not be when candy is being "tossed" at you as the floats drive by.

I love that here in the middle of the city there are horses and bands randomly crisscrossing the neighborhood.  Traffic stops and the horses and floats continue along their way.  Each colla (group) marching down a different street, putting smiles on peoples' faces. Perhaps even taking out an eye or two along the way with the candy being hurled from the floats.

I wandered around a little bit during the daytime while running my errands, taking a few photos and video along the way.

Horses along Travessera de Gracia

And a marching band


This is a typical "float" for the Sant Medir festivities



A quick video of one of the daytime parades:  http://youtu.be/Mj5gahhCszc

In the evening, the kids and I went down to Gran de Gracia where the big parade would be finishing up.  They were a little on the punchy side and it meant being out well past bedtime.  But we had a great time watching the batucada and they would run up to the floats yelling "aquí, aquí!!"  We only lasted about 45 minutes before they were done.  But they were happy with the outcome and both came home with a bag full of candies.

Waiting for the festivities to begin

Eating a healthy carrot before he starts to eat his body weight in candy


I thought these horses were just gorgeous!

Waiting to catch some candy

Batucada





Mmmm candy!


Throwing candy from the floats





Horse tattoo?




Ready and waiting for the candy to land in their bags

A few videos of the night: http://youtu.be/QSsrOKzV0Wg and http://youtu.be/VFOQo69qBfc

It was a fun day / night and one more festival to check off on the books.  Looking forward to Sant Jordi in a few weeks - my absolute favorite holiday here!!!

Besos,
Julie


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