Annual Rite Wrong
Well, it's that time of year again. The annual drunken party that usually ends in a number of injuries and the occasional death known as the San Fermin bull-running festival in Pamplona, Spain. Also known as the "running of the bulls" or, as we prefer, the running of the idiots.
"Men and women of Pamplona, Viva San Fermin!" Pamplona mayor Yolanda Barcina shouted from the city hall balcony. Below, crowds packed the town-hall square, most dressed in white shirts and trousers and donning red handkerchiefs, the traditional garb of the festival.
The "chupinazo" firecracker at midday officially starts the nine-day fiesta which was popularized internationally by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises" and centers round the daily running of the bulls.
The first bull run takes place Saturday and the spectacle, repeated each day until July 14, is broadcast live on Spanish television.
Many of the revelers had spent the night out drinking and partying prior to the 'chupinazo.'
Thuy Trinh, 28, a nondrinker from London, might have been the only sober person among the throngs.
"It's a bit crazy, but I love seeing people enjoying themselves," she said.
"Los San Fermines," held since 1591, attracts tens of thousands of people from across Europe and as far away as Australia and the United States.
Sara Newey, 23, and Rene Armstrong, 25, from Perth, Australia, recounted everything they had to drink in the past twelve hours: a bottle of Jack Daniels, several bottles of sangria, six beers each. (Ed. Note: Liver transplant alert.)
I suppose one could argue that this gives the bulls, who are scheduled to die in bullfights, a chance to even the score. But it really is a terrible custom with a far too high human toll. Last year an American was paralyzed during the festivities. (He has actually made a lot more of a recovery than doctors thought he would according to his family.) 13 people have died since 1924 in Pamplona. They didn't keep records before then, though.
Animals, Dumb Stuff, World news | Gaius Friday, 6 July , 2007
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By feeblemind, Friday, 6 July , 2007 @ 5:32 pm
No sympathy for the people that are injured in the melee of the running of the bulls. No one makes them do it. It strikes me as odd that the highly civilized, suave and sophisticated EU allows a bloody barbaric spectacle like bullfighting to occur within it’s boundaries. Where are the animal rights activists?
By Gaius, Friday, 6 July , 2007 @ 5:59 pm
Oh, they’re running around nude and horny over there:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070705/lf_afp/spainbullfighting_070705182615;_ylt=Am.k6Zwqs.dlBEjV_DDCTaGgOrgF
The demonstrators ran stripped to their underwear and sporting plastic horns, as well as the traditional red bandana worn by those who take part in the famous Spanish event.
The running of the bulls involves the release of bulls every morning into the streets of the city in northeast Spain.
Daredevil revellers, including many foreigners, run ahead of the stampeding bulls as they are herded down the narrow streets towards the city’s bull ring.
Runners are sometimes caught and either gored or trampled by the running bulls and 14 people have been killed in the event since 1911.
The bulls that run in the morning are used in bullfights the same evening.
Thursday’s protest was organised by the animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which said people from more than 30 countries took part.
By Purple Avenger, Friday, 6 July , 2007 @ 7:00 pm
I got no problem with this. Not often we can thin the herd of morons.
By feeblemind, Friday, 6 July , 2007 @ 8:40 pm
Re PETA: Heh heh heh heh. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here is a legitimate cruelty to animals issue, but for PETA’s rank & file it takes a back seat to running around and acting like prepubescent fools. No wonder they aren’t taken seriously.