03.03.2014 - 09:02
To a cry of ‘Teammates! The square is yours!’, the ‘Sweetest War‘ began yesterday in Vilanova i la Geltrú (50km/30mi south of Barcelona). The people celebrate the Sunday Team Event, which is part of their Carnaval (Mardi Gras) festivities, and which climaxes in the Candy War in the central Vila square. This year, 5,600 couples participated—that is, 11,200 people—represented by 128 flags, or teams (comparses). And in totoal, they threw 112,000 kilos of candy (almost a quarter of a million pounds). Adrenaline and debauchery are the touchstones once more of this celebration, that each year draws more visitors from all over Catalonia. Since 1985, Vilanova i la Geltrú’s ‘carnestoltes’ or Carnaval festival has been considered a ‘traditional celebration of national import’.
The festival begins at 9am, as all the participating teams start out from their prospective headquarters. Shop windows all through the town have been protected with cardboard and tape. The battles begin at 11:30, first with the youngest warriors, seven years and under. Next comes the 7-12 age group. And at 12:45pm, the real war starts, when people run the risk of injury from the impact of a flying piece of hard candy. There are five ‘adult wars’, all set to music by the Suburband band.
The participants’ costumes, while varying slightly from team to team, is very important. The women wear a dress or skirt, a Manila shawl, and a carnation or two in their hair. The men sport a white shirt, dark pants, vest or jacket and above all, a Catalan knit cap and ribbon or bow tie at the neck. Sometimes the men also wear a black cumberbund.
A surviving tradition
Vilanova i la Geltrú’s Carnaval is 250 years old, and one of the oldest surviving festivals. Even during the most difficult times of Francoist repression. On February 3, 1937, orders given in Burgos prohibited the Carnaval celebration in all the territories controlled by Francoist troops. That order was extended to the entire Spanish State when Franco secured victory in 1939.
But Vilanova i la Geltrú didn’t follow the orders, and instead continued celebrating Carnaval, openly, but more discreetly. They started over with mascarade balls in community and private halls, and during the 50s, participants went out on the streets with their faces covered on Saturday Mask-day. The town became the focus of Carnaval celebrations throughout Catalonia and also a clear influence on emerging theater groups like the Comediants and the Fura dels Baus.
Even though it’s not the only town that celebrates Carnaval, the truth is that there are not that many others, or perhaps any, that have celebrated it without interruption on the appropriate days of the year. During a time, the celebration was called the ‘Winter Festival’ but it always followed the traditional calendar. In the 60s, for example, ‘Fat Thursday’ was again celebrated after years of Francoist prohibition.
Whipped cream, barley, and sardines
The candy battle is only one of Vilanova’s Carnaval events. There is also a cream fight—sometimes shaving cream, sometimes whipped, a barley throwing fight, many dances, speeches, a tar and feathering of the King Carnestoltes, costume contests, hot chocolate parties, parades, street decorations, and the traditional ‘burial of the sardine’.
