Un-American Activities

Other countries seem to have more fun with fire than we do in the US, or at least in the places I have lived. In Denmark they have huge bonfires (ignore the bit about the burning witches) and here they have devil drummers and bathroom fires (online translators don't work so well for Catalan).

"Come to think more fire festival," is what the computer says,
but I like this version, "Come to the Beastly Fire Festival!"

The story goes like this, based on bad translations. The priest and the monk got the devil to build a bridge in exchange for the soul of the first person to cross it.

el pont de Can Vernet a Sant Cugat

Unfortunately for the devil an old goat was the first to cross the bridge (that tricky priest!). In anger the devil tried to destroy the bridge, but it was too strong.

That's the whole story.  On the big day people gather at the bridge and retell the story. Afterward the goat spews 

smoke and 

flames.

There is then a parade from the bridge to another place in town with the flaming (and sparkling and fire cracking) goat joined by flaming devils and the devil drummers.

After leaving the bridge they are joined by other flaming animals and devil drummers from other cities. Each city has its own fire festivals and their own stories, or so I think I understood when I asked someone, and they come to Sant Cugat to join the fun.

As a member of Claremont's Fourth of July committee I think I have some good ideas about how to add excitement to our parade.

Add fire breathers!

Spinning and sparkling animals.

And my favorite, people dancing under the sparkling animals.

But wait, there's more!! At the final destination the drummers were up on stage and each animal had a final sparkling, fire cracking dance. Next up were the devils with with a series of spinning and sparkling devices for people to dance under followed by a canopy of sparks.

from totsantcugat.cat

For the grand finale there was not a bathroom fire, but a shower of fire (that finicky translator) that was not to be missed. Even A. decided to have a quick dance in it and has a few little holes in his hoodie as a souvenir!

Edited to add that this is a short video but the shower lasted minutes!!

My pictures hardly capture the excitement. Check out some amazing photos here.

Here is a one-minute video from this year.

This blog post was only about Saturday night's events. It was a three-day festival and if you can stand more I'll write another post!