The peculiar case of the dancing Moorish Giants of St Maginus

Tarragona is consumed by means of 10 drink-filled days’ celebration in honour of a very imprecise client saint

St Maginus, the cave-living hermit, celebrated with water – and wine picture: TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL

08 Aug 2015

taking into account that it is laborious to find any individual sober within the streets of Tarragona right through its 10-day annual fiesta from September 15 to 24, another large fiesta a month past may come as a surprise. but Friday sees the beginning of six days of festivities in honour of Sant magazineí.

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in truth, they’ve began the pre-festival shenanigans already, with a tug-of-war this morning. because the thermometer is trembling at 90F, it’s fortunate that a theme of the competition is water, with numerous it being sprayed about on young individuals drinking and listening to loud are living tune late at night.

So who is Sant magazineí that this sort of fuss will have to be made in his identify? in a single sense, it rarely issues. but when there may be an English title for him, he’s St Maginus, whose sanctity used to be sealed via his martyrdom in 306.

For the individuals of Tarragona, his historical past contains the founding of a chapel, nonetheless there on the prime of the previous city on the foundations of the Roman walled castle. they are saying he lived for many years in a cave at Brufaganya, in mountains west of Montserrat.

today it is from Brufaganya that barrels of water are dropped at Tarragona on the eve of the saint’s feast day, which isn’t until August 19. Pious folk collect a bottle of the blessed water to sprinkle at dwelling. the following morning at 5 o’clock the primary Mass in his honour is said on the little chapel on the town partitions. If this were England it would survive if in any respect as an enthralling little ceremony. In Tarragona, 210 events over more than every week compete for consideration.

now not all of the enjoyable is spiritual. there may be tiresome political preaching on the want to keep water. there’s even an erotic picnic, no matter that’s, planned by way of some staff. The folkloric aspect of things includes the disclosing of the lately restored giants.

when you’ve got never considered giants dancing, it is exceptional how evenly they tread in time to the track and how dignified the movements are of these 13ft figures. all of it depends on the robust man beneath their ornate robes, with a wickerwork body on his shoulders. a piece of track within the conventional style has been composed for them: the Rumba of the Moorish Giants of Tarragona – for these two giants are Moors, a man and a lady, or king and queen. Moors kind part of gala’s everywhere Spain. It’s a part of the cultural landscape, simply as, in Cuba, the atypical identify for the staple dish of rice and beans is moros y cristianos. The beans symbolize the Moors.

I every so often wonder what the North Africans who’ve settled in Spain, largely since the beginning of this century, actually make of the position assigned to them in traditional fairs. Some locations mount a sort of historical re-enactment of Christians combating Moors, but in Tarragona the dance of the giants conveys no triumph of reconquest.

the true barrier between the individuals of Tarragona and the up to date Muslim immigrants is one in all on a regular basis tradition. In theory Muslims do not drink. normally Spaniards, and Catalans, are a sober folks, but in festivities alcohol performs a very prominent phase.

Such cultural variations (like the broad use of pork, from jamón to lard, in Spanish cookery) have a a long way bigger position in separating Muslims and Christians in Spain than any overt religious ceremonies.

In neighborhood Tortosa, a secular “Renaissance” competition has been contrived seeing that 1996. it’s only as mystifying to the immigrant group, confronted by bands of men in tights marching throughout the streets beating drums.

as a minimum the festival of Sant magazineí has a recognisable center of attention, though it may be as bizarre to new immigrants as the rites of the Shia day of Ashura appear to outsiders.

Tarragona is consumed by 10 drink-crammed days’ get together in honour of an extraordinarily obscure purchaser saint