Fiestas del Pilar del 8 al 16 de octubre de 2011
History in Brief
The Fiestas del Pilar started to be celebrated in Zaragoza at the beginning of the 19th century. During the first years, the festival was based on religious acts such as solemn masses, sermons, preachings, processions and popular rosaries, bullfighting -an essential element in any Spanish festival-, different type of parades, and something usual for many decades: the group of Giants and Bigheads. We know that in the year 1659, the presence in the city of Zaragoza of a well-established group of giants and bigheads was already a tradition which took place every year before the Corpus procession.
The first Fiestas del Pilar we have information about took place from 12 to 20 October 1723 and included a general procession on 12 October (Pilar Day), toros de ronda (running bulls with fire in their horns), mummeries, popular passacaglias, and a grand bullfight. This programme was kept until the beginning of the 19th century. The first important change took place exactly in the year 1807, when the Fiestas del Pilar was awarded the category of compulsory religious festivity, which served to extend the cult to the Pilar Virgin. In theory, the date of the Festival should be on 2 January, day in which the Virgin Mary came to Zaragoza, but the Church preferred to celebrate it in October, after cereals and grape harvests were over.
There were not important changes in the programme until the 1st Republic, in 1873. In that year took place an impressive parade that, escorted by the municipal mounted guard, went around the city and arrived to the bullring. From then on, this kind of big parade usually took place during the Festival. Another landmark took place in1894. From then on, the Official Contest of Jota (Aragonese folklore) is hold. The most prestigious figures of the Jota have come up from this Contest during its 110 years.
There were not important changes at the beginning of the 20th century. During the first decade of the new century, different sport events and allegorical parades took place, such as that of 1934 at the Canal Imperial de Aragon. After the Spanish Civil War -period in which obviously the Fiesta was suspended and the terrible post-war period- the Fiestas del Pilar added elements that have been consolidated as an essential part.
Two events that have become very popular date back from those years: the Flowers Offering and the Fruits Offering. The most massively attended celebration of the Festival, the Flowers Offering, takes place every 12 October from 1958. It started to be celebrated after a delegation of the City Council of Zaragoza took from Valencia the idea of offering flowers to their patron saint. Six years later, in 1964, the Fruits Offering started to be hold. In this celebration held every 13 October at midday, the regional houses of Zaragoza offer its best fruits to the Virgin.
From 1949 to 1978, just before the restoration of democracy in the Spanish municipalities, Zaragoza elected a Queen and her Court of Honour. It was the time of the old-fashioned dances at la Lonja and a Fiesta with a small popular participation, alien to the citizens and totally outdated, which suffered a radical turn as the 1980s approached.
More than 25 years of popular fiesta
Under the new times of a country fully immersed in a political transition, in 1979 -after 60 years- the first municipal government democratically elected decided to take a new turn and take the fiesta to the streets.
Theatre, concerts, shows for children and adults, traditional events such as the Flowers Offering, the Crystal Rosary, the Fruits Offering, bull fighting, craftwork exhibitions, and many other events that turn Zaragoza into a big popular, participative, diverse and colourist space for fiesta.
Humour, fun, contemporary dance, visual shows, theatre, puppets, clowns, juggling, trapeze, mime, shows in the streets?During the Fiestas del Pilar, the city becomes a huge stage for fiesta . In almost every corner we can find a theatre group, a mime, a visual show, a children´s show, dance, a concert or a moment for fun.
Along these years, the Fiestas del Pilar has become a first-rank festival and a cultural referent. Cultural and social diversity is also one of its special characteristics, a long-time distinctive feature exemplified by a deep relationship between Zaragoza and Latin America that has marked the cultural evolution of Zaragoza and its major festival.
