San Isidro

Though I don’t have any particular story to unite these images, I think most of them are quite lovely (worth sharing anyway). They are from the festival of San Isidro, which just finished recently. For those of you who aren’t Catholic, here is what I learned—each city, or profession (and probably countless other things) has a saint/patron saint. Madrid, for example, has a patron saint called “Saint Isidro.” This saint has its special season of celebration, marked by nearly two weeks of processions, concerts, plays and cultural displays, all of which culminate in fireworks. “All major ‘fiestas’ in Spain finish with fireworks, Sara!” That’s how one of my professors, Pilar, responded when I wondered out loud how the fireworks were related to the Saint. From what I understand, it’s probably like Jesus, the Christmas tree and their relationship to one another.

One of the especially charming things about San Isidro is that she brings about the coming to Madrid of people from various pueblos in their regional traditional dress. Many of the Madrileños were dressed in traditional dress as well, and the little ones were so cute (jolis à croquer, je ne te dis pas) that I couldn’t help myself from following them around to take pictures. The girls each wore a big red carnation bobby-pinned at the hairline, at the upper-limit of their foreheads, and wore triangular scarves that they tied under their olive-hued chins. The boys were dressed much like the little newspaper sellers in the 1920’s Chicago streets, complete with tiny bowler hats and neck scarves.

The second thing that endeared me to San Isidro was the classical concert held by the lake in the Retiro (played by a French orchestra), accompanied at the finale by fireworks. I enjoyed both the concert and the fireworks immensely, even though I had to wait for two hours amongst a family of pushy, pumpkinseed-spitting smokers in order to enjoy the spectacle.

So fireworks and children—this is what I understood of San Isidro. Other than that, what this Saint does/did, or why they celebrate in the particular way that they do, I haven’t managed to understand with my limited Spanish. If anyone knows, I would be very pleased if you could explain it to me.