VERSIÓ EN CATALÀ
Cap de setmana de festes a Olot. Feia aaaaaanys que no hi anava. Diuen que tot torna algun dia, i si les modes ho poden fer, jo també 🙂 Aquest any m’he decidit a reviure les festes, de la mà de l’Arnau. Ben diferent de quan tenia 16 anys i disfrutava de les nits del Tura, aquest cop hem redescobert les festes, vivint-les més de dia i d’una manera més familiar.
Vam tornar a saludar els gegants, els nans i els cavallets, aplaudint la melodia enganxosa que des de ben petita he après a ballar 😀 Ostres tu, no pensava que m’emocionaria tant tornar-los a veure ballar al mig de la Plaça Major. Els balcons estaven abarrotats de mainada, que tenien la sort de veure’ls de ben amunt; altres que encara no aixecaven un pam de terra també eren asseguts a primera fila de la plaça. Els demés ens vam haver de conformar de veure-ho drets des de quarta i cinquena fila, sota un sol espetarrant 🙂
Gegants de dia i correfocs de nit; concerts per animar l’ambient i una estona a les fires per adonar-nos que ens fem grans (ja no és només que no ens hi vulguin als «patitos», sinó que fins i tot acabem marejats després de pujar al «saltamontes»).
Una gran retrobada de festes 🙂 Va estar bé. Tot i així, encara que els anys passin, Olot continua igual: l’esport nacional encara passa per recórrer Firal amunt i avall, aturant-se a saludar veïns, amics i coneguts. Aquesta gent de poble no canviaran mai.
ENGLISH VERSION
Weekend of fiestas in Olot (my mother’s village). I hadn’t gone there for a looooong time. It’s said that everything comes back after a while. If fashion can do so, I also can 🙂 This year, I decided to go again to the fiestas with Arnau. Everything was so different than when I was 16 and used to live the fiestas just at nights. This time, we rediscovered the Fiestas, living them more during the day and in a familiar way.
We saw the «giants» (traditionally, a huge puppet with human appereance; a strong man inside, makes it walk and turn around, while dancing a popular melody; there are several types of «giants»: the big human puppets, the horse riders and the dwarfs; see the picture for more details). I could never imagine I would enjoy so much seeing again the giants dancing around the Plaza Mayor. The balconies were crowded of «lucky» kids who could see the giants from above; other little men were also sitting down at the first row of the Plaza, near the giants. The rest, we had to cope with the fact of enjoying the view from the fourth or fifth row 😛
Giants during the day and «correfocs» (see meaning below) during the night; concerts to brighten up the people and some time at the funfair set up specially for the Fiestas. Just then, after riding on one of of those rides and wishing it would end soon, we realised we were getting old… 😛
The «Correfocs» are the most exciting and dangerous thing in the traditional Fiestas. It’s all about fire. The devils (of course, people dress up as devils) bring the fire with torches and bangers. The people who live in the village must stop the devils by catching them. It hasn’t to do with weapons or war, but to a fire dance. And of course, at the end, the devils always lose and the village is safe again 🙂 See picture below for more information.
It was great to live the Fiestas again 🙂 Even though I saw them in a different way, I realised nothing had changed in the village: they keep on walking up and down the main street, stoping every 5 meters to say hi to neighboughrs, relatives and friends. The problem of living in a village…