Hot rhythms and tight costumes
Samba and hot disco rhythms instead of pappy noses, horns and handmade speeches, that’s the motto for carnival on the Costa Brava.
The street carnival in Roses, loud and exuberant, is celebrated, l’escala, Empuriabrava, Platja d’Aro and many other small places along the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia.
Breathless through the night
With often spring-like temperatures, the fun factor is also slightly clad guaranteed!
Salsa rhythms roar from the colorfully decorated festivities. There is a party atmosphere on the promenade. You dance breathlessly through the night in a shrill costume.
The beat roars far out to sea
Golden knights throw themselves into battle, colorful masks laugh at the crowd: the beat resounds across the sea. In Roses, the bizarre celebrations roll from the Plaça Catalunya to the Plaça Frederic Rahola in Roses to applause, people dance, flirt and sing until the walls shake.
The square in front of the port trembles
There were 62 imaginatively equipped cars to admire this year. Countless magnificent costumes could be admired. The mayor had handed over the city key to King Carnival for a few days and put the city’s fortunes in his hands. Only at the end of the hustle and bustle on Shrove Monday after the “burial of the sardine” and a fire spectacle did she get the city’s management transferred back.
Funeral of the sardine
if in Roses On Shrove Monday (in other places in Spain on Ash Wednesday) strangely dressed figures of ghosts through the city, then the end of the foolish time is near and the carnival is officially considered over.
When the sardine is lit or carried out to sea in some coastal towns, there is a big fire spectacle or fireworks around it.
Legend has it that something has to be destroyed for something new to emerge…
Explanation attempts for the strange custom
1. The custom is said to have originated in Madrid in the middle of the 19th century. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. The townspeople drove to the country to bury something symbolically there. Since no meat was consumed during Lent, the ribs of a pig were symbolically buried – the “Cerdina”. At some point over time, a momentous error is said to have crept in when it was passed on and “Cerdina” accidentally became “Sardina” – sardine.
2. In the 19th century, a troop of students organized a grief procession led by a sardine to celebrate the carnival one last time and at the same time symbolically initiate the upcoming fasting.
3. King Charles III. of Spain (1716 – 1788) is said to have prohibited meat enjoyment on Ash Wednesday and there should be sardines as popular food. On Ash Wednesday, untypically, it got spring-like warm and the sardines were inedible. It stank to the sky. A burial of stinky fish was organized without further ado. The spontaneous procession developed into a party and became a tradition.
4. Other legends state that the symbolic offering was asked for rich fishing.
It is no longer possible to figure out where the custom comes from. The only thing that is certain is that he ends the carnival in many places in Spain with a lot of fanfare, smoke and bang. And next year the fools will be rid of again.
