In Murcia, a city in south-eastern Spain, the end of Easter is celebrated in style with the parades of the Burial of the Sardine, a pagan festival dating back to 1851. Theories abound over the origin of the festival, but the most common belief is that its origins lay in the minds of a group of local students that wanted to imitate masquerades seen in Madrid. As it goes, the students dreamt up a procession presided over by a sardine, as a symbol of fasting and abstinence during Lent, followed by the public burning of the sardine, celebrating the end of Lent’s prohibitions.
Tag: