A bang on the ear – in Órgiva (part 2)

What came before the Big Bang? Who knows; but it’s a whole lot quieter here in Órgiva. The roads have re-opened and the detritus of 10,000 bangers swept up. The church doors are once again locked.

Over the weekend, normally quiet bars were packed with happy families dressed in beautiful clothes. Babies were passed around to be kissed for the 100th time that day. The town came alive, it really did – bands, a fun fair of sorts, candy floss and even a pop-up shoe shop in the plaza, arrived. The kebab shop had a queue of people come midnight.

The previous day’s pyrotechnics were repeated on Friday from 6pm. As the light faded, the statue of Cristo – unbolted from La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Expectación – was paraded around town like a Premiership-winning team offering up the trophy to the faithful.

Hoisted up on shoulders, the grand parade of lifeless packaging stopped at various points, one outside Baraka. Each time, the intervening 30 minutes were filled with an unholy array of bangers. And as before, all living creatures were sent running.

Behind, black-dressed girls wearing veils (a murder of Morticia Addams?) – stomping in slow-motion to a dozen drums – led the way for the Virgin, her rosary swinging in time to the bearers’ steps.

What a wonderful and strange world we live in.

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A bang on the ear – in Órgiva (part 1)

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