I spent the day at La Herradura where there was the Feria de San José. San José is the patron saint of La Herradura and this fair always coincides with Father’s Day which is on the 19th of March.
The feria was in a large tent next to the castle. There was Spanish music playing with women dressed in frilly flamenco dresses and young boys wearing black suits with red sashes. I was there with three other Auxes (two Aussies and one from the US). To give an idea of prices down here, we drank tinto de verano and cervezas for 1.50€ as well as mojitos for 3.50€, and had perritos ('little dogs'), AKA hot dogs, for 4€.
Out on the main street, we listened to the charanga ('brass band') and watched the ‘traditional bullfight of ribbons’ which looked neither traiditional nor contained bulls, but was entertaining to watch; cyclists had to ride down a hill and collect ribbons using screwdrivers. All the competitors were male except for one female who collected the most ribbons and therefore, won the first place Serrano Ham.
Notes:
Traditionally, many women in Spain have Marian names which is when their name honours the Virgin Mary. María is so common in fact that it even has its own abbreviation: Mª. Typically, María precedes another word, such as: María del Carmen or María de la Soledad ('our lady of solitude'). Many of these names have their own nicknames such as Maricarmen for the first and Marisol for the latter. Some boys even have Marian names such as José María (literally 'Joseph Mary'). And ther reverse can be seen in women with María José. The nicknames for these two are Pepe and Pepa. El Día de San José is not only for fathers, but for all the Pepes and Pepas as too!
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