Pamplona: Running of the Bulls
When are Los Sanfermines?
The festival launches into action each year on July 6 and continues with relentless energy until July 14.
Where are Los Sanfermines?
The small and otherwise laid-back city of Pamplona is home to the internationally famous festival of Los Sanfermines and its chaotic Running of the Bulls.
Los Sanfermines Traditions
Los sanfermines kick into gear on July 6 with the txupinazo, when a rocket blasts off in front of the city hall to announce fiesta's commencement. This moment of deafening cheers and uncorked champagne bottles certainly sets the tone of the week, as the city dives headfirst into a week a crazed festivities.
The chaotic running of the bulls, or el encierro, is the most characteristic and internationally renowned part of the sanfermines. The running of the bulls takes place everyday at eight in the morning and consists of a crowd of primarily young men who run ahead of the clamoring bulls through an 830-meter stretch of cobbled road and into the city´s bullring.After each morning is greeted with the daily Running of the Bulls, bullfights liven up each afternoon, and parades featuring bands of music and enormous giants constantly wind through the streets. On July 7th, a procession dating back to the 13th century boasts music and enormous crowds as it passes through Pamplona in honor of San Fermín.
Every party must come to an end, and in the case of los sanfermines that inevitable moment is called the pobre de mí. The crowd laments the end of another year's festivities with the traditional song the pobre de mí, literally meaning "poor me."
History of Los Sanfermines
Held annually since 1591, the weeklong festival celebrates Pamplona's son-turned-saint San Fermín. Living circa 3AD when Pamplona was part of the expansive Roman Empire, San Fermín learned of Christianity from the French bishop San Saturnino, who had come to Pamplona to spread the good word. San Fermín found himself so inspired that he travelled to France to study and eventually become a bishop himself.
That accomplished, he followed in San Saturnino's footsteps and took to the spreading of Christianity, but on one of his stops came up against some local powers in France who were quite opposed to the idea. Refusing to abandon his cause, San Fermín was beheaded and interred. However, part of his remains made their way back to his hometown of Pamplona, which made him quite popular in the city. So popular, in fact, that not long afterwards townspeople initiated an annual festival to honor him. How exactly that evolved into the nonstop week of partying and running of the bulls that it is today remains a mystery!
