Carol&John

Hi,
I'd be interested to read about anyone's experience of the romerias, especially the El Rocio (Huelva province) in May. Does one go with a group, or is it a personal journey/pilgrimage?
Thanks in advance,
Carol

Loco

Do try and plan a trip here around a Romeria before they come
commercialised. They happen in May and June, go back hundreds of years
and are unique to this region. The Catholics apparently wanted to
reclaim the area from the Moors so rode in to towns in precession all
formal and religious mixing Catholic, Arab and Pagan tradition and
venerating the Virgin Bella. They quickly dispensed with the formal bit
and ran a free massive party and piss up in honor to the Virgin Bella
and days later finished it off with a quick possession on horseback
taking the Virgin Bella to the finishing point. It worked! ( This
explanation may be a bit flawed but it is about right ). The biggest is
at El Rocio with around 1 million people turning up, Lepe is the next
biggest I guess with over 1/2 a million and I know of at least ten other
smaller ones ( I can't find an eng text about the local ones but this
will give you an idea.
http://www.donquijote.org/culture/sp...s/elrocio.asp).

The one in Lepe moves out of town after the first or second day and
goes a few KM to a whole village built only for the Romeria and the
houses are mostly empty apart from this week of the Romeria when every
house is packed and thousands of of tents and marques are put up by
those who can't or don't wish to buy a house.

Romerias go on for 3 or 4 days and being Spanish all though the nights
as well. If you would like to ride I can probably organise a horse and a
group to go with. Normally the groups I know go for half a day. Some
advance planning is needed as every horse for miles around is hired
out and more importantly getting the time right is vital as most
Romerias have times even very experienced British Riders can find hard
yet at other times a nervous rider with the most basic skills will find
easy.

Best
Loco

Carol&John

Hola Loco,
Thank you for the interesting post! I tried the link you suggested, but the page could not be found (discovered there is a medical spanish course for nurses in...Guanajuato (Mexico! ). I'll try a google search. I didn't know there were so many different romerias in the Huelva area! Does the procession start in Sevilla? It brings back memories of a 1960's Carmen Sevilla film "El camino del rocio"! (fabulous ) Are you going on horseback yourself?
Saludos,
Carol

Loco

Sorry the comma got included!

http://www.donquijote.org/culture/sp...as/elrocio.asp

There are a load of Pics at

http://www.galeon.com/juliodominguez/ROCIO2000.htm

I haven't been to El Rocio as it is a bit far away to ride back drunk in charge of a horse !

I tend to ride at at least one a year. I stick to afternoons as at night it can get pretty hair raising riding in the towns at 3am in the morning.

Best
Loco

Carol&John

Thanks Loco,
I've had a quick look at both sites (funny that the donQ site didn't come up with the festival/el rocio page earlier when I entered the search words...) Great information for the romeria - I tried reading the news in Huelva Informacion, but I get bogged down with all the references to hermandades, etc. I think that in the Carmen Sevilla film, the romeria started in La Triana, Sevilla (probably as part of that hermandad...but, it's a story anyway!) The name Almonte is mentioned often; is this the village near Lepe?
No cars are allowed; just horse, horse drawn carriages, and pedestrians. Wow! It must be a mas exodus. It would be a shame for it to become commercialised, as you mentioned. However, does it still not hold a great religious significance for many people? It would not be compared to "El botellon" from a few days/week ago?
Carol

Nige

I recall watching the crossing of the river (Guadalquivir) at Sanlucar to the park on the flat bottomed ferries on local Telly last summer. The commentators were able to interview each party on the beach. It was great fun. Those coming from around Cadiz bay and that general area would ford the river using the ferry. It means proceeding through the park and sleeping amongst the wildlife. Mosquitoes outnumber the participants by millions to one. From discussing with some English friends who have made it to Rocio, you need to be in good shape to survive in the heat.http://www.rocio.com
Some classic translations using Google on this site. But also some nice pictures.

Carol&John

Hi Nige,
Thanks for your information. Yes, the heat must be gruelling in June. Now, if I were 20 years younger...
I'll spend tonight googling the text of the website . Loads of information.
Regards,
Carol