Monday, April 26, 2010



Moros y Cristianos: Alcoy:

This last weekend, i was in Alcoy, Alicante where the triumph of the Christians over the Muslims in the fifteenth century was celebrated. after 7 centuries of Muslim occupation, the Muslims were thrown out of Spain, and this little snippet of history is represented every 21- 24 of April in the little pueblo of Alcoy. Almost the entire town participates, dressing up in either muslim or christian outfits, each in a particular group. The most important characters are the muslim and christian captains, who fight on the castle on the last day of the festivities. After that, the second in comand and the "favorites" of the captains- the captain's wife, daughter, sister or friends. And these townspeople don't just dress up for the parade and then return to normal life - no, they stay in character all day, everyday, through the night and send their costumes out for some serious dry cleaning on the fifth day. The music never stopped and the fireworks went off basically all day. What impressed me the most was the mezcleta, where hundreds of fireworks go off simultaneously and you feel like your eardrums will burst. I had never, never imagined such noise was possible. The combination of the feeling of fiesta, great food and moors and christians dancing in the streets all day and all night, just made it... so Spanish.

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