Zaragoza Part Three: Ofrenda de Flores

Okay, so remember a long time ago when I mentioned a festival in Zaragoza that culminated on the last day that we were there? The one called "Pilar" with the "Ofrenda de Flores"? Yeah, I almost didn't remember either. Don't feel bad.

Anywho, not only was Oct 12 the day for the Ofrenda de Flores, it was also "Dia de la Hispanidad," which is basically Spain's national holiday. So you get the picture that it was a pretty big deal.

Starting at about 7:30am (possibly earlier), all the Spaniards start bringing flowers to this empty structure in the Plaza Mayor directly infront of the basilica.

By about 11:30, it looked like this:

And then by 3:45ish when we left, it looked like this:

And many, MANY more people were still in line bringing their flowers. Even though Spain is a Catholic country and most people when asked will respond that, yes, they are Catholic, many of them aren't practicing Catholics. Until it comes to festivals like this. Then they're all about dressing up and bringing the right flowers and getting the best blessing.

If you brought gladiolas, the white flowers, and the helpers placed them at the top, supposedly you received a higher blessing than if you brought carnations for the lower part of the structure. Oh, and if you're curious, all of the flowers are supposed to form the skirt of the Virgin Mary who's up at the top. I got the impression that you couldn't be in the procession to give flowers unless you were all dressed up in the classic peasant attire of whatever century they were representing (sorry for the lack of detail). I love their costumes and someday I'm going to make myself stockings like these:

Throughout the day, different represetative groups from different parts of Spain had little "performances" that they did while in the line that went through probably half the city. Also, there were your normal street performers,

and many many cute little kids in costumes.

Probably the oddest thing I saw was a group of bagpipers. Aren't bagpipes from Scotland?

They also had a stage set up in front of the offering structure (I'm still not sure what to call it. Monument? Altar? Structure? Virgin's skirt? What would you call it?) where different dancing groups or choirs performed. Also, every once in awhile, the Spanish air force would fly overhead and make lots of fun noise.

The many problem that I had with the billions of people and crowds, etc was that more Spaniards need to learn what deoderant is. Nasty nasty smelling.

And the trip ended for us around 4pm when we loaded the bus and drove back to Sagunto. On the way, we stopped at a truck stop again and I will leave you with this amusing shirt that caught my eye. You want a shirt like this too, don't you? lol